ABSTRACT: Rockfall ditches or areas can be constructed in order to protect against rockfalls in settlements that are indanger of rockfalls when the population density is not high. Nevertheless, in the design of such protection structures,essential site-specific engineering studies and analyzes are often not carried out appropriately. Therefore, rockfall ditches are occasionally not capable of preventing rockfalls. Within the scope of this study, the performance of a 2m-deep and 1 km-long rockfall ditch excavated at the upper elevation of touristic Akköy (Ürgüp) settlement in 2012in order to prevent the entrance of falling rocks to the residential area was evaluated on the basis of 3-dimensionalrockfall analyses. According to the rockfall risk classification, the settlement is under moderate rockfall risk. Thedigital surface model used in 3-dimensional rockfall analyses was generated by point cloud data obtained fromphotogrammetric images taken by unmanned aerial vehicle. During field observations, it was determined that thedimension of the previously fallen ignimbrite blocks could reach up to 2 m. On the other hand, the high persistencyof discontinuities in the source zone indicates that the dimensions of the potential rockfall blocks may be large. As aresult of the 3-dimensional rockfall analyses carried out in RocPro3D software, it was defined that the falling blocksare generally caught by the ditch excavated between the source zone and the settlement, but in some sections of theditch those blocks may continue to roll over the rockfall ditch. Eventually, Akköy settlement is still partially underthe danger of rockfalls. If the rockfall ditch is not periodically cleaned in the course of time, the extent of danger willenlarge with the decrease in the capacity of the trench.