An Assessment of Recreational Functions of Botanical Parks in Urban Ecosystems


 In the changing world, pandemics have entered human life and people want to relieve the stress and relax that these new living conditions they meet. Parks in the urban ecosystem are one of the indispensable elements in this sense. In this context, while botanical parks contribute to the urban ecosystem, they also meet the recreational needs of people.In this study, a survey was carried out for assessing the recreational quality of Bakırköy Botanical Park in Bakırköy, Istanbul, which is Turkey’s most important metropolitan city. The results of the survey reveal that the users perceived Bakırköy Botanical Park as an urban park, and the findings reveal that young users (26-35 years old) visited the park mostly within 1-3 hours. In addition to being a park to get away from the crowd (78.00%) in terms of comfort and image, the presence of children’s playgrounds is also considered an important recreational function for users (66.80%). Although the park has some deficiencies in terms of reinforcement elements and negligence, observations exhibited that it cannot fulfill its education and research functions adequately as a botanical park. Hence, the plants in the park must have labels. It would be an appropriate approach to make the necessary arrangements for Bakırköy Botanical Park to maintain both its recreational and educational functions, and to consider the protection-use balance in the arrangements.


Introduction
People living in the cities need natural environments and urban green areas more due to factors such as the concretion of work and home environments, environmental pollution, and tra c problems (Turna et al. 2017). While green areas offer positive effects on human health and psychology, they also offer a natural habitat by regulating the microclimate of the city. To improve the living environment quality of citizens, the urban architects interested in designing the green urban areas seeking natural sanctuaries to relax, rejuvenate, and enjoy nature (Chiesura 2004;Millera et al. 2015). As an example of these places, where individuals meet both their personal and social recreational needs, parks, squares, pedestrian zones, cemeteries, playgrounds, zoos, and botanical gardens can be given (Hepcan and Özkan, 2005). The park is de ned as a place that includes different attributes to characterize itself and decide its appearance to attract its customers (Stanford and Guiver, 2015). The authors observed that parks enhance the quality of life by increasing the degree of enjoyment and satisfaction experienced in daily life. At parks, visitors ful ll their own goals of self-identity and social bonding (Lee and Shen, 2013), nding balance in their psychological, physical, and economic wellbeing (Razak et al. 2016). Among the park areas, botanical gardens stand out with their versatile bene ts. Today the roles are including the activities such as recreational activities, social activities, economic activities, etc. Botanic gardens also play the roles as a part of the green lung of the city that gives freshness for the visitors in the metropolitan city (Mat Nazir et al. 2014) With their rich collections and scienti c resources, botanical gardens have a unique potential that attracts the attention of society to the problems of preserving biodiversity, ensuring environmental education, conserving nature, providing leisure, and serving the place for relaxation and entertainment (Kalugin et al. 2019). According to the de nition of Heywood, President of the Botanic Gardens Conservation International, botanical gardens are the organizations that grow the natural and cultural plants of the world in a certain order following the purposes of the garden, educate children, students, and the public by introducing the plants to them, and also conduct scienti c research on plants for different purposes (Heywood, 1987).
Gardens vary widely in their design, purpose, and features, and so it is not surprising that research has identi ed a wide variety of factors motivating garden visitation. These motives include the appreciation of the aesthetic and rare qualities of plants, interest in garden design and landscaping techniques used in different periods of history, admiration of gardens' scenery and 'ambiance', and pleasure in being outdoors (Connell & Meyer, 2004). The peace and tranquility of garden spaces and their spiritual and restorative bene ts have also been identi ed as features that attract people to public gardens (Bennett and Swasey 1996;Darwin Edwards 2000). Other reasons for visiting gardens include recreation, playing games, and social interaction (Bennett and Swasey 1996;Darwin-Edwards 2000), the desire to gain inspiration (Bennett and Swasey, 1996), and the opportunity to relax and to read (Bennett and Swasey 1996;Crilley and Price 2005). In addition to the scienti c functions of botanical gardens, the fact that a city has multifaceted contributions serving the society in an "open and green space" system should always be considered as an element of planning (Demircan and Yılmaz 2004).
Istanbul is one of the most magni cent cities in Turkey with its nature and spacious green areas and has become a very fast and unhealthy city since the 1950s as a result of industrialization and immigration from Anatolia. The population of the city has increased 15 times in the past 60 years. Rapid population growth in Istanbul has brought along irregular development, and for these reasons, the number of green areas has remained below the average of world cities (Dedeoğlu and Şimşek 2006). However, the emergence of pandemics and epidemics today has increased the importance of green spaces even more.
In this way, it is understood more clearly how important botanical parks, which are one of the important recreation areas, are for a metropolis like Istanbul. From this point of view, in this study, the recreational use of Bakırköy Botanical Park, which we can describe as the newest botanical park of Istanbul, is examined in the context of "recreational quality criteria" in line with the user requests and demands, its positive and negative aspects have been presented, and suggestions have been developed.

Materials And Methods
The main material of the study is Bakırköy Botanical Park, located in Bakırköy district on the European side of the city of Istanbul. The province of Istanbul is located in an extremely strategic location where the continents of Asia and Europe meet in the north of the Marmara region, between 28 0 01'' and 29 0 55'' east longitudes and 41 0 33'' and 40 0 28'' north latitudes With its length of about 30 km, the Bosphorus waterway is one of Turkey's most important points connecting the European and Asian sides of Istanbul city and providing the pass from the Black Sea to the Marmara Sea (Gürel and Gündüz 2011). Bakırköy Botanical Park, which is the research material, is located within the borders of Bakırköy district of Istanbul province and was established in 2013 under Bakırköy Municipality (Fig. 1). In the park, Turkey's highest two-game towers are located with a height of 11,50 meters each and there are units such as 11 thematic gardens, 3 wind turbines, a waterfall with 8 meters high with cascading pool, view terraces, playgrounds, natural pond, ornamental pools, waiting areas for migratory birds, sculptures, picnic areas, social facilities, and parking lots. The energy need is met entirely by wind generators and solar energy panels. The pond of 5200 m2 in the park is one of the attractions of the park and supports wildlife with carps, ducks, and turtles. Moreover, Bakırköy Botanical Park has a rich plant diversity and there are approximately 262,500 plants, including monumental trees. 301 saplings planted by Bakırköy Municipality in memory of the mineworkers who lost their lives in Soma are also located in the park (Anonymous, 2020).

Questionnaire design
The questionnaire method was used in this study. In the questionnaires, the general pro le of the users of Bakırköy Botanical Park, their knowledge about the concept of the botanical park, the state of recreational use, and the positive and negative features in the context of recreational quality criteria was evaluated. The questionnaires consist of a total of 22 questions, including open and close-ended questions. In the rst part of the questionnaire, to determine the user pro le, questions regarding the users' gender, age, occupation, education, and monthly average income, etc. were asked. In the second part, the mode of transportation, the season, day and time of the users, the frequency of arrival, and with whom the visitors came were asked as the questions to measure the knowledge of the users about the concept of the botanical park and determine the recreational use of the park. In the third part, while the positive features of the park in the context of recreational quality criteria were evaluated with the questions in four groups as comfort and image of the park, socialization, recreational functions, and transportation, negative features were evaluated in three groups as management and security, ttings and negligence, and noise.
The questions asked in the context of recreational quality criteria were used on a 3-point Likert scale and organized as "I Agree", "I Partially Agree" and "I Disagree" (Kaffashi et

Results
The General Pro le of Users The questionnaire conducted in Bakırköy Botanical Park revealed that 55.60% of the participants in the questionnaire were female users and 44.40% were male users. Participants mostly came from Bakırköy and Merter districts with 20.00% and 14.00% respectively. Also, the questionnaire exhibited that the users were generally from the European side of Istanbul such as Fatih, Zeytinburnu, Avcılar, and Yenibosna. In terms of age groups, the observations showed that users between the ages of 26-35 had the highest rate with 27.0%, followed by users between the ages of 36-40 with 21.20%. Observations also revealed that 42.00% of the respondents were university graduates, which is the highest percentage, 40.00% were high school graduates, 10.00% were primary education graduates and 8.00% were master/doctorate holders.
Moreover, an evaluation of the occupational groups of the participants revealed that the majority of them were government o cials with 29.60%. The lowest rate was found to be unemployed participants with 3.20%. While 28.00% of the respondents had an income of TRY 3001-4000, the income of 26.00% was TRY 4001-5000 and the income of 24.00% was TRY 2001-3000 (Table 1). Users' Information About The Botanical Park When the respondents were asked to de ne the concept of a botanical park, 44% stated that they did not know what the botanical park meant, while 56% did. When asked what botanical park means for users who know the concept of the botanical park, 42% of the respondents de ned the botanical park as naturepeace, followed by the expressions of green areas and recreation with 19.6% and 18.8% respectively. (Fig. 2) While 24.4% of the participants said they knew the Nezahat Gökyiğit Botanical Garden, 64% did not respond. Besides, 50.40% of the respondents stated that they learned the botanical park through friends and acquaintances, while 2.0% stated with the least percentage that they learned through newspapers-magazines.

Recreational Use Status
An evaluation of the recreational uses of Bakırköy Botanical Park reveals that the majority of the users came by private vehicle with 42.80%, followed by public transportation with 32.80% and pedestrian transportation with 18.40%. While the respondents stated that they came in the summer months with the highest rate of 40.00%, the lowest rate was found to be in the winter with 0.80%. Moreover, when the days the botanical park was used and the frequency of arrival was questioned, the answers exhibited that it was used at the weekends with 44.40% and visited once or twice a month with 28.40%. While the majority 71.20% of the respondents stated that they spent 1-3 hours in the park, 41.60% and 41.20% stated that they came with their friends and families respectively ( Table 2). The relationship between the usage of recreation and the usage pro le Correlation analysis was made to determine the relationship between recreational uses of the park and the user pro le, and it is shown in Table 3. As can be seen in Table 3, all factors of recreational use are related to the monthly average income levels of the users. It has been determined that there is a linear relationship between the mode of transportation, the season used, the day used and the frequency of arrival. Accordingly, the observation revealed that the users mostly preferred private car and taxi transportation to the park, and as the income level rose, the arrivals with a private vehicle increased. While it was determined that the users generally preferred the park during the summer months, it was also determined that as the income level rose, there were users who visited almost every season. Participants with an income level of TRY 4001-5000 said that they came to the park every two to three months and on weekends, while it was observed that as the income level decreased, people visited the park on different days and the frequency of arrival decreased. However, a negative relationship was found between the monthly average income level and the time spent. So much so that those with an income level of TRY 500-1000 spent 3-5 hours, while those with an income of TRY 3001-4000 spent 1-3 hours. Observations also exhibited that the educational levels of the respondents were related to other uses other than the mode of transportation. It has been observed that there is a linear relationship between education levels and season used, day used and frequency of arrival. University and high school graduates were seen to visit the park mostly in the summer, on weekends, and every two or three months. There is a negative relationship between education level and time spent. While high school graduates stated that they spent 1-3 hours, it was found that the time spent decreased with the increase in the level of education. On the other hand, a negative correlation was found between age range, time spent and frequency of arrival. That is to say, while users between the ages of 36-40 who participated in the survey came to the park every two to three months, it was observed that the frequency of coming to the park increased with the decrease in the age range. Similarly, while the participants whose age range is 65 and over spent 0-1 hour in the park, the time spent in the park increased with the decrease in the age range. According to the results of the questionnaire, while there was a positive relationship between gender and mode of transportation, the season used, and the day used, it was found to be negatively related to the time spent.
Observations exhibited that female users came to the park on weekends by private vehicles, public transportation, or on foot and spent 1-3 hours in the summer. Male users, on the other hand, mostly used the park with their private vehicles almost every season and at variable times. In addition, there is a linear relationship between the occupations of the respondents and the day used. While retirees and private sector employees stated that they arrive at variable times, government o cials and self-employed users said that they arrive on weekends.

An Evaluation Of Recreational Quality Criteria
In the context of the recreational quality criteria of Bakırköy Botanical park, the respondents said that they came to get away from the crowd with the highest rate of 78.00% in terms of the comfort and image of the park and 46.80% of them stated that they agreed that it was a natural environment. While there were users who partially agreed in the opportunity to have a good time with the family with 49.60% in terms of socialization, 37.20% stated that they did not agree that since the park did not allow social interaction. In terms of recreational functions, 66.80% of the participants stated that they came for the presence of children's playgrounds, while 61.20% stated that they partially agreed with the state of the park enabling eating and drinking. The vast majority of the users with 84.40% stated that they did not agree with the situation of obtaining information about plants (Table 4). The relationship between the recreational quality criteria and the user pro le A correlation analysis was performed to determine the relationship between the recreational quality criteria of the park and the user pro le and is shown in Table 5. As seen in the table, it has been determined that there is a negative relationship between the park being a natural environment and age and average monthly income level.. In other words, users between the ages of 26-35 and those with an income of TRY 4001-5000 TL stated that the park was a natural environment. As the income level and age range decreased, users answered: "I Partially Agree". Also, the opportunity of the users to enjoy the view was found to be positively correlated with the education level and the characteristics worth taking pictures with the income level. As the education level and income level increased, the users answered: "I Disagree". It has been determined that the mode of transportation is linearly related to the occupation, and civil servants and students said that they partially agree with the ease of transportation to the park.. In terms of recreational functions of the park, it was determined that while obtaining information about plants was positively related to age, it was negatively related to occupation. In other words, as the age range got higher and users, especially government o cials and students, answered: "I disagree" to the question of whether they visited the park to learn about plants or not. A negative relationship was determined between being in the park for eating and drinking purposes and the monthly average income level. As the income level increased, the users stated that they partially agreed with the purpose of visiting the park for eating and drinking. Considering the negative aspects and shortcomings of the park in the recreational use of Bakırköy Botanical Park, in terms of management and security, users stated that they partially agreed with the competence of the security personnel with the highest rate of 66.00%. This was followed by users who responded "I partially agree" to the night use question with 45.60%. When the out t elements and negligence were questioned, the highest rate was 36.40% of the participants who said that WCs were su cient, while 54.80% of the respondents partially agreed with the negligence of children's playgrounds. This was followed by the users who stated that they partially agreed with the su ciency of pergola and seating units with 50.40%. Besides, the highest rate of participants (67.20%) stated that they did not agree with the presence of garbage in the park. The evaluation in terms of noise revealed that the highest rate was 57.20% of the users who stated that they did not agree with the idea that the park was crowded (Table 6). The Relationship Between The Negative Aspects And De ciencies Correlation analysis was made to determine the relationship between the user pro le of the negative aspects of the park and is shown in Table 7. As seen in Table 7, an evaluation of the management and safety of the park in the context of recreational quality criteria exhibited that the lack of ba e plates had a negative relationship with age, education, and monthly average income and participants, who were university graduates between the ages of 26-35, answered "I Partially Agree", and as the age range increased, the users answered, "I Agree". Participants with an income level of TRY 4001-5000, on the other hand, said "I Agree" and as their income level decreased, they said, "I Partially Agree". On the other hand, it has been determined that the night use of the park is negatively related to gender, the lack of security staff is negatively related to age, the lack of plant identi cation cards is negatively related to education, while the expensiveness of the places in the park is positively related to age and education. Moreover, female users stated that they partially agreed in the night use of the park, while users between the ages of 26-35 and high school graduates stated that they partially participated in the lack of security staff and the lack of plant identi cation cards. As the age range decreased and the education level increased, users stated that they agreed. Expensive places in the park were expressed by users between the ages of 36-40 and high school graduates as "I Partially Agree".
While negligence of children's playgrounds in terms of out t elements and negligence was negatively associated with age, education, and monthly income, it was found to be positively related to the profession. University graduates, government o cials, participants between the ages of 26-35, and the ones with an income level of TRY 3001-4000 stated that they partially participated in the negligence of children's playgrounds, as the age range increased, the users said: "I agree". It has been determined that the inadequacy of lighting elements is negatively related to age and gender, the neglect of the pond area is negatively related to education and occupation, the inadequacy of WCs to occupation, and the presence of garbage in the park is negatively related to age. While female users and users between the ages of 26-35 stated that they partially agreed with the insu ciency of the lighting elements, as the age range increased, the users answered "I disagree". Similarly, the users in the age range of 26-35 stated that they did not agree with the presence of garbage in the park, and as the age range increased, the users said "I Partially Agree". Also, while university graduates and government o cial users partially agreed with the negligence of the pond area, high school graduates, retirees, and self-employed persons stated that they disagreed. Government o cials agreed with the insu ciency of the WCs and housewives stated that they partially agreed. The presence of tra c noise in the park was negatively associated with age and positively associated with the profession. Thus, users in the age range of 26-35 answered that they did not agree with the presence of tra c noise, and they partially agreed as the age range increased. In terms of occupational group, it was observed that while government o cial users partially agreed with the presence of tra c noise, student users did not.

Discussion And Conclusion
Today, the changes in the social and economic situation directly affect the quality of urban life and the preferences of living spaces (Sağlık and Kelkit 2014). It is important to consider the danger of exceeding the carrying capacity limit with the intensive use on these areas and to make recreational plans (Pirselimoğlu Batman et al. 2019). In this study, the user pro le of Bakırköy Botanical Park was determined and the meaning of the Botanical Park for the users and the recreational usage status of the park were questioned. Moreover, in the context of recreational quality criteria, the positive and negative features of the park and also whether it met the user requests were determined. Similarly, different researchers emphasized that it is necessary to evaluate the views of people using a recreation area about this area and that the attitudes, perceptions and preferences of those using the area are the prerequisites for ensuring the quality of recreation in recreational areas (Fischler, 2000;Talay et.al. 2010). In the questionnaire, Bakırköy Botanical park was observed to be generally preferred by the users of the European side of Istanbul, also the users were mostly female, a young user group between the ages of 26- Bakırköy Botanical Park, the most important feature of the park in terms of comfort and image is that it is a quiet and calm park that people come to get away from the crowd. Access to the park is relatively easy, and 65.60% of users reported that they partially agreed that the park had easy access. Children's playgrounds in Bakırköy Botanical Park were also considered an important recreational function for the users by allowing them to spend time with the family in terms of socialization. Users stated that they did not agree with the situation of obtaining information about plants as a botanical park. This situation is due to the lack of an identifying label for every plant in the botanical park. Moreover, in our study, the users emphasized that the botanical park had some de ciencies in terms of recreational quality criteria. One of the most important de ciencies of the park is WCs, one of the out t elements. In terms of management and security, the lack of security personnel was concluded and the users partially agreed with the park's night use status. In terms of out t elements and maintenance, most users partially agreed with the negligence of children's playgrounds and the adequacy of pergolas and seating units. On the other hand, the respondents emphasized that the park was not very crowded and there was no tra c noise. Although Bakırköy Botanical Park is near the E-5 highway, the presence of noise is prevented by the presence of a tree zone as the sound barrier. When the negative aspects of the park were associated with the user pro le, especially female users partially agreed with the night usage state of the park in terms of management and security. Regarding the lack of ba e plates, university graduates between the ages of 26-35 partially agreed. The inadequacy of WCs in terms of out t elements and maintenance was related to the profession and government o cials stated that WCs were insu cient, while housewives partially agreed. The negligence of children's playgrounds was another de ciency and this situation was found to be related to profession, age, and income level. Namely, while young users between the ages of 26-35, who were university graduates and had TRY 3001-4000 income level, partially agreed with the negligence of children's playgrounds, and the result "I Agree" was obtained as the age range increased. On the other hand, although there was no noise situation in the park, especially young users and students between the ages of 26-35 were the groups who stated that there was no tra c noise. However, as the age range increased, some users answered "I Partially Agree" with the presence of noise. Similarly, in the studies conducted in different parks, it was emphasized that the users were worried about toilet and waste management and that the security was insu cient when using stated that while people were wandering through the urban forest, they sought a managed infrastructure in toilets and trash cans.
In the questionnaire study conducted in Bakırköy Botanical Park, which is located within the borders of Istanbul Metropolitan, Bakırköy district and has the characteristics of an urban park, the requests and expectations of the users visiting the park were questioned and the park was determined as a park that can meet the active and passive recreational needs of its users. The park was observed to offer possibilities such as seeing natural scenery, getting away from the crowd, exploring, etc. While the park offers opportunities for active recreation with children's playgrounds, walking areas, wedding areas, eating and drinking venues, and activities carried out during certain periods of the year, it also has the feature of improving the quality of life. Also, it supports the wildlife with the arti cial pond and the scenery presented by the water element. On the other hand, although the park is easily accessible, public transportation should be increased to support government o cials and student users. As the users emphasized, it is necessary to eliminate the de ciencies of the out t elements in the park (increase the number of ground-direction signs, toilets, and lighting elements, etc.) and their maintenance should be carried out regularly. On the other hand, by increasing the lighting elements for female users, the use of the park at night will be offered. Unfortunately, it is seen that Bakırköy Botanical Park does not fully meet the expectations regarding education and research. With the survey studies conducted, it is seen that the users perceive this area as a standard park and visit it for the physical and spiritual contributions it provides to people. For Bakırköy Botanical Park to ful ll its functions as a botanical park in its full sense, the 'Plant Identi cation Labels' with Latin-Turkish names, origins, and family names on each plant, together with its recreational features, must be included and brochures, which introduce the botanical park to the visitors, should be handed. It should be distributed within. Especially for visually impaired individuals, it would be appropriate to implement the mechanisms with audio-narration. Again, the awareness of the botanical park should be increased by organizing one-day tours to introduce the plants by experts at certain times for educational purposes in the park. Considering the intensive user population of Botanical Parks, which offer rich beauties from natural parts, ensuring that they can healthily reach future generations is another important issue to be taken into consideration. For this to come true, removing and improving the negative features of Bakırköy Botanical Park in terms of recreation, ensuring the protection-use balance, and protecting the rich and invaluable plant taxa it contains will be an important approaches in terms of sustainability.
Declarations Figure 1 Location of Istanbul and Bakırköy Botanical Park Figure 2 The meaning of the botanical park for users