Landscape values of rocky habitats in urban and semi-urban context of Turkey: A study of Tokat city

Tokat is a characteristic city an unusual topographic structure including different land use and green areas in Turkey. The natural landscape values of green areas considered as nature splits withstanding against the urban pressures in the city and surroundings have been offered for implications for urban nature conservation and management. Therefore, this paper presents results of an attempt to assess landscape values of urban rocky habitats comprehensively, and evaluates a proposed systematic landscape value assessment approach for determining environmental perception and preferences of urban rocky habitats which are threatening within excessive urbanization and human use of natural areas in the context of the city of Tokat, Turkey. By using a questionnaire and landscape assessment approach, a total of 20 habitats selected from urban and surroundings were surveyed and with surveying performed on 170 participants, public preferences and landscape attributes for these habitats were determined. According to preferences and performed factor analysis results, gathering perceived data was used to describe and formulate a landscape model for rocky landscapes revealing the 'ecological and spatial', the 'visual/aesthetic' and the 'usage and arrangement' components of the scenes based on principal component structure of factor analysis. Consequently, some suggestions were also made regarding the landscape values in urban context of Turkey and the potential benefits of the method for urban nature conservation and management processes are discussed.