Foreword

Almost everywhere in the developed and developing countries, populations are growing very rapidly. Villages are expanding to become towns, towns are growing into cities and cities are merging into vast conurbation. By the end of this century, it is estimated that three out of every five people will live in towns. The layout of cities has in most cases been dictated, or almost accidentally created, by a series of mainly political, social and economic decision-making processes, often over many centuries.

Climate is a natural resource that is vital for the availability and quality of food, water, shelter and lifestyle. Climate is also a potential hazard which manifests itself particularly through climate extremes. Societies and their governments must have a full awareness of the range of climate factors if they are to maximise productive use of natural resources and assure their sustainability.

Traditional information on climate and an emerging ability to predict future climatic events are developing as powerful tools to assist planning and management across all socio-economic activities and underpin sustainable development.

Atmospheric components are an essential part of this environment and it is therefore important to realise that modifications are made by buildings to the climates not only within their walls and preparing and developing heat insulation, but also in the streets, courtyards, parks and other areas around, between and above them.

Knowledge of climate is also necessary to mitigate the consequences of climatic hazards, such as droughts, floods and unseasonal frosts.

It is clear that our cities must, where appropriate, be purposefully planned in order to optimise the environment of urban areas and avoid a series of structural and functional design failures.

Climate of Elazığ was prepared by concerning all the knowledge which is mentioned briefly above and I hope this study will be useful for those who are interested in meteorology and climatology

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