Determination and Evaluation of Recreation Potentials of Forest Resting Places According to the Gülez Method; Manisa-Demirci District Example

Before planning in urban and rural areas, it is necessary to determine the most suitable land use criteria. If these criteria are not kept in sight, inappropriate use will occur and many problems ascertain. In this context, the recreation areas within the rural landscape should be created by taking ecological, cultural, social and economic aspects into consideration since recreational areas are at the top of the fields that meet the need for open-green space activities. Recreational areas are an important tool for land use, for the evaluation and service of natural and cultural landscape assets. If these areas are unplanned and purposeless, they will lead to destruction of nature and unconscious use of landscape features. In this study, it is aimed to determine the current potentials of the resting places of Başalan, Güldürdek and Sarıçayır in Manisa province Demirci District and the demand and tendencies of the district people using these areas. Gülez method and questionnaire survey are used as the determining tool. It has been determined that Başalan and Sarıçayır have low recreation potential and Güldürdek has medium recreation potential. With the questionnaire survey, the demands and tendencies of the people are determined for the recreation areas. With these data obtained, suggestions are done to increase the recreation potentials of the forest resting places in Demirci.