Determination of Recreation Potential of Gürün (Sivas) District G？kp？nar Lake and Round

From ancient times to the present, the individual behaviors towards resting and having fun have been less and sometimes intense in some periods in accordance with the cultural development of humanity and have shown great diversity. Along with this change, nowadays there are negative effects of overpopulation, usage of technologies, noise and pollution and hard work pace on people. Because of these negative effects people see recreation activity as necessity and feature areas suitable for recreation. Recreation, in general, people voluntarily participating in leisure activities and can be described as personal satisfaction they achieve. G？kp？nar Lake is also an example of daily recreation areas that have increased rapidly in our country in recent years. G？kp？nar Lake, which is 147 kilometers away from Sivas city center and 10 kilometers away from Gürün district center, is based on the beauty of the landscape, which is composed of geomorphological and hydrological features. The lake, which feeds from the bottom and reaches a depth of 15 meters, is now the center of attention of domestic and foreign tourists in terms of recreation. Therefore, in this study, it is aimed to determine the recreation potential of G？kp？nar Lake and its environs, which is an important recreation area. The value of recreation areas emerges with their natural, cultural and visual characteristics. For this purpose, various criteria are taken into consideration for determining the existing recreation potential of a particular area. In this study, a method which was developed by Gülez (1990) in accordance with the conditions of our country and used to determine the recreation potential of in forest and open air areas was used to determine the existing potential of recreation area. As a result of the analysis of the findings obtained in the study, the recreation potential of G？kp？nar Lake and its surroundings was determined. After the analyses of indications recreation potential of G？kp？nar Lake and round has been detected. After researches recreation potential of G？kp？nar Lake was detected as 65% and ranked as “High” potential