Urban Public Spaces, Public Health, and Heavy Metal Pollution Threatening in Ankara City Center: Strategies for Urban Planning

Year 2022, Volume: 8 Issue: 2, 116 - 121, 26.12.2022

Öznur Işınkaralar , Emine Pirinç Bayraktar

https://doi.org/10.55385/kastamonujes.1177807

Abstract

In the last century, population growth and concentration in urban areas have caused many problems, especially in the central regions of metropolitan cities worldwide. One of these problems is air pollution. It reduces the quality of life of the citizens and threatens public health. Among the components of air pollution, heavy metals are the most dangerous because they accumulate in metabolism. Some are toxic and poisonous even at low concentrations and deadly for human health at high concentrations. Studies on the determination of air pollution are limited to revealing the current situation and do not offer solutions for urban planning. In this context, the accumulation of copper elements, which is extremely dangerous for public health, in the city center was investigated using landscape plants as a tool in the research. Within the scope of the study, the change of copper concentration in five plant species grown in areas with no vehicle density, less dense, and dense regions were investigated. As a result of the research, the increase in the concentration of copper in the air due to traffic has been revealed statistically. The study emphasizes the relationship between heavy metal pollution, which poses a severe threat to public health, and urban planning, and shows the basic strategies in terms of urban planning.

Keywords

City centers, Urban quality of life, Public health, Air pollution, Ankara

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