An Assessment of Recreational Functions of Botanical Parks in Urban Ecosystems

Abstract 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.