Periodicals of Engineering and Natural Sciences ISSN 2303-4521 Vol.6, No.2, December 2018, pp. 159~167 Available online at: http://pen.ius.edu.ba DOI: 10.21533/pen.v6i2.204 159 Climate Friendly Urban Green Areas: Roadside Green Spaces in Sakarya/Turkey Hande Sanem ÇINAR 1 , Nebahat Nihan PARLAK 1 , Nazlı YILDIZ DÖNMEZ 1 1 Departement of Landscape Planning and Design, Landscape Architecture Division, Istanbul University Article Info ABSTRACT Article history: Received Sept 27, 2018 Revised Dec 14, 2018 Accepted Dec 17, 2018 The role of urban green areas to adapt climate change impacts has been emphasized globally as urbanization is a very common fact around the world. This issue has been addressed by the sustainable development goals, several studies also underlined that sustainable urban planning is a crucial issue to enable more livable cities. The most natural and sustainable solution is to benefit green spaces with specific landscape design approaches including xeriscape. In this study we focus on roadside green spaces in an industrialized city. Traffic islands have been assessed based on the share of hardscape and green parts together with plant species and their irrigation specifications. The irrigation requirements have been analyzed by using a potential evapotranspiration method which is Blaney Criddle equation. The need for irrigation and the influence of the roadside green spaces as an adaptation tool emerge as a controversial situation in case of low water resources. We analyzed water needs of current plantation and irrigation systems and came out with a conclusion that xeriscape practices like mulching, use of xeric plants and grey water has a good potential to optimize water usage, mitigate urban heat island effect and support adaptation to the climate change. Keyword: Xeriscape Climate change Sustainable development Urban green space Traffic island Corresponding Author: Nebahat Nihan PARLAK, Departement of Landscape Departement of Landscape Planning and Design, Landscape Architecture Division, Istanbul University İstanbul Üniversitesi Orman Fakültesi Valide Sultan Cad. No:1 34473 Bahçeköy-Sarıyer/İSTANBUL/TÜRKİYE Email: nihan.parlak@istanbul.edu.tr 1. Introduction In the research, it is stated that the hot air waves in the world are getting warmer in the last decade and the period between 1983 and 2012 is the hottest 30 years period of 1400 years [1]. Projections made for our country also indicate that climate change will lead to a decrease in precipitation on many provinces, and an increase in temperature and evapotranspiration. At the Rio +20 summit held by the United Nations in 2012, 17 'Sustainable Development Goals', which are aimed to be realized in the world between 2015 and 2030 and integrated with the 'Millennium Development Goals', have been determined. Xeriscaping studies, making the cities sustainable, struggle with climate change and its effects can be seen among these targets [2]. The xeriscaping implementation has a critical importance for that. The struggle with the effects of climate change on cities [3,4], and the effects of heat islands formed by surplus of hard surfaces have become the subject of various studies [5,6,7]. The comprehensive implementation of surveys in urban green areas for the efficient use of water and the introduction of sustainable landscape studies should be the most important task of landscape architects.