Assessing the Impact of Tourism on the Physical Environment of a Small Coastal Town: Girne,Northern Cyprus

The aim of this paper is to assess the impact of tourism on Girne, with special emphasis on the natural and built environments. With this aim in mind, the study first reviews the positive and negative impacts of tourism on the physical environment of the coastal cities. These impacts are used to develop the methodology for assessing the impacts in the second part. Accordingly, 11 negative impacts/indicators (4 for natural environment and 7 for built environment) and 9 positive impacts/indicators (3 for natural environment and 6 for built environment) have been selected and founded as relevant for assessing tourism impacts of the case study. Then, each selected indicator has been measured by using a series of analyses results. Following these results, some suggestions are made for encouraging the positive impacts and for decreasing the pressure created by tourism on the physical environment of the town. The issues discussed in the paper are relevant to other small historic cities in the Mediterranean Basin. The paper concludes by emphasizing the need for proper planning strategies to minimize negative impacts on physical environment and significant difference of impacts between historic district and newly developing areas.     

A Model for Measuring the Sustainability Level of Historic Urban Quarters

The main aim of this paper is to propose a model for measuring the sustainability level of historic urban quarters and to indicate an appropriate strategy for their revitalization. Based on this aim, this study first presents the theoretical review on the concept of “revitalization”, and its relationship with sustainability; next, it introduces the characteristics, role, selection process and scaling method of sustainability indicators, which are essential for measuring the level of sustainability. The paper then, as the main contribution of this paper, proposes the model for measuring the level of sustainability in historic urban quarters and determines some proposals to achieve revitalized and sustainable historic urban quarters. Depending on the proposed model, there is a direct relationship between type and the level of obsolescence (revitalization) and the level of sustainability in the physical, economic and social structures of a particular area. Therefore, when the level of sustainability is high in any one of these three structures, it means that the level of obsolescence is low in the same structures of an historic urban quarter. The result of this paper leads us to say that, the level of sustainability is a new (additional) input in the strategic planning process of revitalization and sustainable urban revitalization of historic urban quarters. Finally, the paper concludes with a brief summary on the general arguments of the paper.     

Skeletal remains of dogs unearthed from the Van‐Yoncatepe necropolises

A total of 15 dog skulls and a number of bones have been discovered in two burial chambers dating from 1,000 BC in the necropolises of the Van‐Yoncatepe Castle in eastern Turkey. The finds were a dog skeleton in burial chamber M5 and 14 dog skulls and plenty of bones in burial chamber M6. It was determined on examination that the skeleton found in burial chamber M5 was an 11–12‐year female dog, and that the skulls unearthed from burial chamber M6 belonged to dogs with an age range of seven to eight months to 12–13 years. In the latter chamber, however, except for one skull whose sex could not be determined, one was ascertained to belong to a female dog and the rest to males. Calculations of 20 different indices and ratios were made on the skulls. This showed that these skulls were of the dolichocephalic type. It was observed that there were signs of a widespread periodontal disease and alveolar recession. Enamel hypoplasia and abscess chambers detected on the teeth, and deformations observed in the hard palate were evidence enough to suggest that these were undernourished dogs. There were also some facial fractures, which were noticed to have occurred before death. On the other hand, examination carried out on the bones revealed that the dogs were of medium size, and that they were likely to have had a withers height of 50–55 cm. The data obtained from both the burial chambers brought to light the fact that these dogs were more of the hunting or working types. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.