CIPA 2003 XIX th International Symposium, 30 September - 04 October, 2003, Antalya, Turkey 
In the survey stage, data related to general physical and 
socio-economical aspects of the site are collected. During the 
site survey, detailed data related to buildings within the study 
area is collected (in architectural scale) through the 
previously prepared survey forms. These forms include 
detailed exterior and interior questionnaires for traditional, 
new and/or monumental buildings. In order to find out the 
existing social and economic structure of the inhabitants, 
social questionnaires are applied, which cover questions 
about the demographic features, income level, attitudes of the 
inhabitants towards the site, historic buildings and 
preservation, existing legal and administrative means, etc. 
In the analyses and evaluation stage, data collected during 
the survey stage is analyzed so as to visualize the 
development and existing situation of the site and to define 
its general characteristics, values and problems. Together 
with the socio-economic aspects, classification and 
evaluation of architectural, visual, historical, traditional and 
present-day values of both the individual buildings and the 
whole site lead to the determination of the features to be 
protected. Besides, types, causes, reasons, effects and scales 
of the problems to be treated are searched for in this stage. 
Evaluation of physical, social and economic aspects, is 
followed by the decision stage, in which policy for protection 
and rehabilitation of the site is proposed. Proposals include 
decisions related to future functions in consideration with the 
existing trends; classification of building groups according to 
the types and degree of intervention; principles of 
intervention types for building groups; definition of the 
scheme of the implementation according to the existing 
administrative, legal and financial frameworks, etc. 
3. METHODOLOGY OF ANTAKYA PROJECT 
Antakya, is a town where exist various traces of different 
periods and civilizations. Integrity of these different traces as 
well as complex transformations in time resulted in various 
values and problems, which should be considered in 
conservation and planning of the town. In order to come up 
with proper conservation interventions and policies in such 
complex cases, it is vital to analyze and evaluate complex 
data concerning various aspects of the town. 
Therefore, the aim of the Urban Conservation Project 
prepared in Antakya has been defined as determination and 
evaluation of values, potentials, conservation problems and 
development of conservation decisions related to the selected 
site. Differing from the previous projects, this semester 
Geographic Information Systems(GIS) have been considered 
to be the main tool for the project. There upon, Antakya 
project followed the four similar stages of pre-survey, survey, 
analyses/evaluation and decision stages as in any urban 
conservation project, while the content and methodology 
within these stages have differed according to the 
requirements of GIS. 
3.1 Pre-Survey Stage 
During the preparation stage of Antakya Project, just like the 
previous urban conservation projects, research related to the 
historical development of the city has been carried out in 
general through written documents, providing descriptive 
data from earlier researchers, notes of travellers; and visual 
data covering old and new photographs, engravings and 
historical maps in order to understand the values of the 
Zenginler Quarter within the history of Antakya. To 
understand the contemporary situation of the city, 1/25000, 
1/5000, 1/1000 scaled current maps are obtained beside 
conservation plans showing the boundaries of urban sites and 
conservation/planning decisions for each site. 
For the collection of detailed data through the site survey, 
survey forms, which have been categorized as traditional 
house form and new building form are prepared. For the 
traditional houses, three types of survey forms as the 
courtyard, interior and exterior survey form are prepared. 
Additionally, to understand the social structure of the users in 
the site, an extensive social questionnaire form is prepared 
including questions about the demographic features (i.e., age, 
sex, education level) of households in each dwelling, their 
occupation status, income levels, existence of social security, 
from where/when and why they settled into this district, their 
attitude towards the conservation activities, etc. 
For the new buildings, architectural features of which are 
different than the traditional houses, new building forms have 
been prepared searching for data related to the construction 
technique, number of storeys, number of dwellings and 
overall condition of the buildings. Data related to monuments 
and commercial buildings are decided to be collected through 
sketches, photos and descriptions. 
Format and content of the forms are defined considering that 
GIS would be used in analyzing and evaluating the data that 
would be collected through these forms. Accordingly, a 
coding system is defined for each data entry so as to provide 
terminological and syntactic standards. For this, all possible 
data entries about the architectural/spatial features, 
architectural elements, structural/material properties, 
problems related to structural deformations, material 
deteriorations and alteration/changes of the buildings are tried 
to be predicted prior to the site survey. However, the system 
defined has been flexible enough to add new codes in case of 
coming across with new unpredicted data at the site. 
3.2 Survey Stage 
Survey stage has consisted of collection of data through the 
site survey, design of the database, recording and structuring 
of the collected spatial and attribute according to designed 
database. 
Collection of Data: The selected study area in Zenginler 
District, which consists of 223 parcels and 420 buildings, has 
been defined as primary study area. All types of buildings in 
this zone are documented in detail through the previously 
prepared survey forms, and social questionnaires. The close 
environment of the primary study area, which forms a buffer 
zone, has been defined as the secondary study area. This zone 
has been studied in less detail when compared with the 
previous one, with the aim to provide data about the general 
features of the surrounding tissue and reveal the interaction of 
Zenginler District with the rest of the town. The data 
concerning the secondary study area is collected by using 
existing 1/1000 maps, without entering into the buildings. 
Besides, in both zones, data related to the elements and 
structure of the urban tissue, streets, building blocks and 
building types are collected directly onto the existing 1/1000 
maps. 
Design of database and Structuring of the Documentation 
System: Design of the database is the most important phase 
in a GIS based method. Therefore, before the data entry to the 
system, the database is designed considering the necessary 
spatial data together with their spatial object classes and the 
related attribute data. Thereupon, two parallel studies had to