SMART URBAN TRANSFORMATION IN THE CONTEXT OF ACTIVE CITIES: EVALUATION OF OUTDOOR EXERCISE PARKS IN DIFFERENT DISTRICTS OF ISTANBUL IN TERMS OF SOCIAL MUNICIPALISM

Sports and exercise park areas organized by public administrators in cities provide the environment and opportunities for citizens to be able to feed physically and spiritually from the environment they live in, and to produce material and moral values that can contribute to the development of this environment. Exercise parks, which are among the services of social municipality and established in open areas in order to increase the living standard of the society through sports, have been one of the most used fields for physical activity. From the perspective of smart urbanization and social municipality, it is clear that sports services and parking areas offered by public authorities should be designed in a way that takes into account new approaches such as sharing economy, effective and efficient, based on data and through information management systems. From this point of view, the aim of this study is to draw attention to the fact that outdoor exercise parks should be designed based on the needs and requirements of the users. The sub-objectives of the research are to examine the usage habits and profiles of individuals who use the open area exercise parks built by the Metropolitan Municipality in Beykoz and Maltepe districts on the Anatolian side of Istanbul, to evaluate them in terms of sports management and make suggestions for improvement. For the quantitative data collection part of the research, a questionnaire was applied to 500 citizens from different exercise parks in two districts with the convenience sampling method. According to the findings, it was observed that the user profiles of the exercise parks on the Anatolian side of Istanbul differed significantly between the districts in terms of usage habits and socio-economic status, therefore it is suggested that the social municipality services and smart city applications to be offered should be diversified in accordance with the citizen profile and preferences. At the same time, it has been determined that warming up before using the exercise equipment is important for a healthy physical activity in the parks.