Determination of bioclimatic comfort in Erzurum–Rize expressway corridor using GIS Murat Zengin a , Ibrahim Kopar b , Faris Karahan a, * a Department of Landscape Architecture, Faculty of Agriculture, Atatu ¨rk University, 25240 Erzurum, Turkey b Department of Physical Geography, Faculty of Literature, Atatu ¨rk University, 25240 Erzurum, Turkey article info Article history: Received 12 March 2009 Received in revised form 21 May 2009 Accepted 22 May 2009 Keywords: Bioclimatic comfort Expressway corridor Inverse distance weighted (IDW) Geographic information system (GIS) abstract In this study, topographical and climatical conditions are prescinded all along Erzurum–Rize expressway corridors to appoint the areas which have bioclimatic comfort in summer season (June, July, August). For this purpose, the climate data (temperature, relative humidity, wind speed) from nine different stations was entered in the digital data base. By dint of ArcGIS 9.1 software, climatic data were analysed and numerological maps were produced by Inverse Distance Weighted (IDW) interpolation method. As a method, bioclimatically comfortable areas consists of: relative humidity between 30 and 65%, temperature between 15 and 20  C, and wind speed up to 5 m/s. The maps were scored as 0 for uncomfortable and 1 for comfortable and superposed, and bioclimatic comfort area (temperature: 1– relative humidity: 1–wind speed: 1) were determined. Besides, topographic factors were appreciated. As a result of this study, it is concerned that the area (452749 ha. % 63); beginning from south of the Mountains Mescit which is started by Black Sea coastline to Mountain Mescit (3230 m) is out of bioclimatic comfort region; the Erzurum depression (1758 m) beginning from the Mountains Mescit has been determined that area has bioclimatic comfort conditions. As a consequence, it is confirmed that one of the ideal area which has bioclimatic comfort is the Erzurum depression area in Turkey. Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The determining of bioclimatic comfort areas is a very important act for landscape planning process. The gains of the landscape planning studies having the bioclimatic comfort conditions can be briefed as below: -decreasing of health spending, – decreasing of heating and cooling spending, – It has got positive effect on decreasing of the urban heat island thus it has contributed the protections of ecological balance of environs [1]. The history of formulating comfort definitions and applicable thermal comfort standards has indicated that the scientific rigour of comfort inquiry has proven to be essential in the understanding of the basic human processes as they relate to the interaction with surrounding environments [2–4]. Climate is a very important component to identify natural landscape values [5]. For better planning and management of landscape units such as recreational purposes, there is a need for not only to give much emphasis to the visual aesthetic aspects, but also to understand the climatic effects on recreation-seeking humans [6]. Bioclimatic comfort studies were carried out especially in summer season [7–10]. Environmental comfort embodies four research areas thermal, luminous, acoustic and ergonomic comfort [11]. The most commonly used indicator of thermal comfort is air temperature because it is most easy to use and people can rate it without any difficulty. Although it has vital importance, however, it is not the only parameter that can be used to define thermal comfort very accurately. Air temperature should always be considered in relation to other environmental and personal factors. The following are the six environmental and personal parameters that contribute to the thermal comfort condition in a particular place. These may be independent to each other but they have collectively a great impact. Environmental factors are described as air temperature, mean radiant temperature, air velocity and rela- tive humidity. Besides, personal factors are defined as clothing insulation and metabolic rate [12]. Bioclimatic comfort is the climatic condition in which people feel themselves healthy and dynamic. In other words, it is the situation for a person to adapt himself to the environmental conditions by using the minimum energy [2,13,14]. Temperature, * Corresponding author: Tel.: þ90 442 231 23 56; fax: þ90 442 232 24 27. E-mail address: fkarahan@atauni.edu.tr (F. Karahan). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Building and Environment journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/buildenv 0360-1323/$ – see front matter Ó 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.buildenv.2009.05.012 Building and Environment 45 (2010) 158–164