چالش های استفاده از سیستم های اطلاعات جغرافیایی (GIS) در یک تحقیق برای درک حفاظت از میراث فرهنگی در بورسا Challenges in use of geographical information systems (GIS) in a research for understanding conservation of cultural heritage in Bursa

1. Introduction Architectural and urban planning works influence both formation and transformation of historic character of a city, which can be accepted as an evidence of the past society that gives the guidelines for the future development and prosperity. Revitalization and conservation of historic urban areas include aspects of maintenance and renewal of their physical traditional texture together with economic and social dynamism on their development. Hence, the multi-layered structure of a historic city center is necessary to be understood in unity despite of its complex character, which should be defined in a systematic way of geographical information management. Historic urban areas are vulnerable to number of stressors such as rapid urbanization, population growth and natural disasters. Management strategies related to historic urban areas aim to provide the use of cultural heritage for sustainable development of cultural landscapes and natural environment. As Agapiou et al. (2015) mention, conservation of cultural heritage areas require innovative and cost effective tools for systematic monitoring which require costly and time consuming data and information collection procedures for large areas. The importance of digital photogrammetry and laser scanning during process of a digital documentation for an immovable is also reminded by Yastıklı (2007), while geographical information systems (GIS)-based surface analysis is capable to be done systematically on investigating former status of various sites, from archaeological and natural sites to historic mining areas, as studied by Kovács et al. (2011) and Al-kheder et al. (2008). In addition to analyzing the morphological development of a historic city, heritage conservation process is also essential to be assessed and elaborated by digitizing collected input data in different methods. There are several tools, one of which is known as GIS, which is used to manage large data sets for developing sustainable management plans of historic urban areas. The process of urban conservation can be facilitated by making use of spatial database in this system, as already been defined by the scholars (Bilgin Altınöz, 2002; Günay, 2009; Lerotic, 2011). Moreover, He et al. (2015) state that the use of GIS systems brings their own challenges for supporting decision-making strategies because of the large scales of their database system despite of the remarkable advances in its field to support management of cultural heritage sites. As one of the historic cities in Turkey, Bursa, a Nomination File of Bursa as UNESCO World Heritage Site (WHS) since 2014, has followed legal and organizational aspects in conservation issue, which also being witnessed to practices occurred in conservation of historic urban areas since the end of the nineteenth century. It is significant as being the first capital of Ottoman Empire and a developing industrial city in Turkey. Various types of cultural properties have been subjected to different conservation activities, from the public participated symposiums to the restoration applications. These activities have continuously effected to the sustainability of both tangible and intangible cultural heritage in Bursa, which should be studied by searching on historical documents describing faults and successes on the applied projects.