No abstract

The soil erosion is the most serious environmental problem in watershed areas in Turkey. The main factors affecting the amount of soil erosion include vegetation cover, topography, soil, and climate. In order to describe the areas with high soil erosion risks and to develop adequate erosion prevention measures in the watersheds of dams, erosion risk maps should be generated considering these factors. Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographic Information System (GIS) technologies were used for erosion risk mapping in Kartalkaya Dam Watershed of Kahramanmaras, Turkey, based on the methodology implemented in COoRdination of INformation on the Environment (CORINE) model. ASTER imagery was used to generate a land use/cover classification in ERDAS Imagine. The digital maps of the other factors (topography, soil types, and climate) were generated in ArcGIS v9.2, and were then integrated as CORINE input files to produce erosion risk maps. The results indicate that 33.82%, 35.44%, and 30.74% of the study area were under low, moderate, and high actual erosion risks, respectively. The CORINE model integrated with RS and GIS technologies has great potential for producing accurate and inexpensive erosion risk maps in Turkey.

The satellite imagery has been effectively utilized for classifying land cover types and detecting land cover conditions. The Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) sensor imagery has been widely used in classification process of land cover. However, atmospheric corrections have to be made by preprocessing satellite sensor imagery since the electromagnetic radiation signals received by the satellite sensors can be scattered and absorbed by the atmospheric gases and aerosols. In this study, an ASTER sensor imagery, which was converted into top-of-atmosphere reflectance (TOA), was used to classify the land use/cover types, according to COoRdination of INformation on the Environment (CORINE) land cover nomenclature, for an area representing the heterogonous characteristics of eastern Mediterranean regions in Kahramanmaras, Turkey. The results indicated that using the surface reflectance data of ASTER sensor imagery can provide accurate (i.e. overall accuracy and kappa values of 83.2% and 0.79, respectively) and low-cost cover mapping as a part of inventory for CORINE Land Cover Project.

No abstract

The geo-spatial interface of the WEPP model called GeoWEPP uses digital geo-referenced information integrated with the most common GIS tools to predict sediment yield and runoff. The model determines where and when the sediment yield and runoff occurs and locates possible deposition places. In this study, the sediment yield and runoff from Orcan Creek watershed in Kahramanmaras region was estimated by using GeoWEPP model. To investigate the performance of the model, the sediment yield and runoff results from the GeoWEPP model were compared with the observed monthly data collected from the sample watershed. The average Root Mean Square Errors (RMSE) between observed and predicted average annual sediment yield and runoff were 2.96 and 8.43, respectively. The index of agreement was 0.98 and 0.99 for sediment yield and runoff, respectively, which indicated that the model predictions provided good results.

ABSTRACT:In this study the removal of Cu(II) ions from aqueous solution was performed at different concentrations, temperatures, and pHs using ethanol-based organosolv lignin as the adsorbent. The results indicated that the amount of Cu(II) ions adsorbed onto the lignin increased with increasing concentration and pH; however, it decreased with an increase in temperature. It was possible to remove 40.74% (maximum removal) of Cu(II) ions from aqueous solution by using organosolv lignin within 10 min under certain conditions (3 ϫ 10 Ϫ4 M and 20°C). The adsorption process was determined to be consistent with the Freundlich isotherm. Furthermore, it was found that 40% (maximum recovery) of the Cu(II) ions adsorbed on the organosolv lignin could be recovered using HCl with an initial concentration of 3 ϫ 10 Ϫ4 M and a contact time of 10 min.

The main aim of this research was to determine the potential effects of different tillage systems (TT: traditional tillage and RT: reduced tillage) on runoff and erosion at two different locations (Kahramanmaras and Tarsus, Southern Turkey) under (i) fallow, (ii) wheat (Triticumaestivum L.), and (iii) sainfoin (Onobrychissativa L.) crops. Rainfall simulations with intensity of 120 mm h−1 and 30-min duration, representing a typical extreme thunderstorm in this area, were used. We quantified the elapsed time to runoff generation (ET), total runoff volume (R), soil loss (SL), sediment concentration (SC), and runoff coefficient (RC). At both locations, the fallow plots indicated the first runoff response ranging between 1.2 and 3.1 min, while the range was between 9.4 and 8.9 min for the sainfoin plots. The highest runoff coefficient was recorded for the fallow parcel in Tarsus (57.7%), and the lowest runoff coefficient was recorded for the sainfoin parcel in Kahramanmaras (4%). For both study sites, the fallow plots showed higher soil erosion rates (871 and 29.21 g m−2) compared with the wheat plots (307 and 11.25 g m−2), while sainfoin recorded the lowest soil losses (93.68 and 3.45 g m−2), for Tarsus and Kahramanmaras, respectively. Runoff and sediment yield generated from sainfoin and wheat parcels under the RT system were less than under the TT system at the Kahramanmaras location. At the Tarsus location, the effect of soil tillage on soil and water losses was insignificant on the sainfoin planted plots. The reduced tillage system was successful in reducing sediment yield and runoff generated from parcels growing wheat and sainfoin compared to traditional tillage in Tarsus location, but runoff and soil loss were found to be very high compared to parcels constructed in the Kahramanmaras location.

Land-use change through degrading natural vegetation for agricultural production adversely affects many of soil properties particularly organic carbon content of soils. The native shrub land and grassland of Gaziantep-Adiyaman plateau that is an important pistachio growing eco-region have been cleared to convert into pistachio orchard for the last 50 to 60 years. In this study, the effects of conversion of natural vegetation into agricultural uses on soil erodibility have been investigated. Soil samples were collected from surface of agricultural fields and adjacent natural vegetation areas, and samples were analyzed for some soil erodibility indices such as dispersion ratio (DR), erosion ratio (ER), structural stability index (SSI), Henin's instability index (I ), and aggregate size distribution after wet sieving (AggSD). According to the statistical evaluation, these two areas were found as different from each other in terms of erosion indices except for I index (P < 0.001 for DR and ER or P < 0.01 for SSI). In addition, native shrub land and converted land to agriculture were found different in terms of AggSD in all aggregate size groups. As a contrary to expectations, correlation tests showed that there were no any interaction between soil organic carbon and measured erodibility indices in two areas. In addition, significant relationships were determined between measured variables and soil textural fractions as statistical. These obtaining findings were attributed to changing of textural component distribution and initial aggregate size distribution results from land-use change in the study area. Study results were explained about hierarchical aggregate formation mechanism.