nstantaneous and historical temperature effects on a-pinene
Land
use and land cover change detection in Karinca
river catchment
(NW
Turkey)
using GIS and RS techniques
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Author Details
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RecepEfe
(Corresponding author)
Department
of Geography, Faculty of Arts and Sciences, University
of Balikesir,
10145 Balikesir - Turkey
e-mail: recepefe@hotmail.com
AbdullahSoykan
Department of Geography, Faculty
of Arts and Sciences, University of Balikesir, 10145 Balikesir - Turkey
IsaCurebal
Department of Geography, Faculty
of Arts and Sciences, University of Balikesir, 10145 Balikesir - Turkey
SuleymanSonmez
Department of Geography, Faculty
of Arts and Sciences, University of Balikesir, 10145 Balikesir - Turkey
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Publication Data
Paper received:
17
October 2010
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Revised
received:
16
July 2011
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Accepted:
30 July 2011
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Abstract
The basin
of Karinca
river, in the north-west of Turkey,
covers an area of 29,840 ha. Pronounced changes in land use emerged as a
result of the development of activities in the tourism sector in Turkey in the
1970’s. The basin has been significantly affected in the course of this
process. This study was conducted in order to determine the land use changes
(as well as the type of changes and their direction) occurring in the use of
land in the Karinca river catchment
for the period 1979-2007. The geographical data were gathered by using
1:25000 scale topographical maps as a basis. Thus, the existing soil and land
use data from 1979 were processed on these bases and the
the main materials rendering the land use were
produced. Geometric verification was made by putting the previously prepared
bases onto landsat ETM+ and satellite images of
2007. In the final stage, results pertaining to the changes in land use were
obtained by overlapping the two sets of data.All processes were done
using the ArcGIS Desktop v9.x program. According to
the data of the year 1979, the catchment area
consisted of 43.4% forest, 26.5% grassland, 18.3% olive groves, 10.6%
agriculture and 1.2% built-up lands. Comparing these coverage with the data
of 2007, show a clear shift among residential areas, olive groves and forest
terrain. It was found that the agricultural areas, particularly along the
shoreline, were converted into resort houses and that the olive groves
(the dominant land use) shifted from lower regions to its upper sectors. All
these changes caused loss of natural habitats leading to degradation.
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Key
words
Turkey, Land use change, Land
degradation, Geographical information systems, Remote sensing
