Environmental Monitoring of Land-Use and Land-Cover Changes in a Mediterranean Region of Turkey

Abstract

Unprecedented rates of human-induced changes in land use and land cover (LULC) at local and regional scales lead to alterations of global biogeochemical cycles. Driving forces behind LULC changes mainly include rapid growth rates of population and consumption, lack of valuation of ecological services, poverty, ignorance of biophysical limitations, and use of ecologically incompatible technologies. One of the major ecological tragedies of the commons in a Mediterranean region of Turkey is the loss of Lake Amik at the expense of increasing the area of croplands, which used to provide vital ecosystem goods and services for the region. In this study, we aimed at quantifying the effects of past land-use transitions on soil organic carbon (SOC) pools (0-20 cm) in a Mediterranean region of 3930 km(2), between 1972 and 2000. LULC changes were quantified from a time series of satellite images of Landsat-MSS in 1972, Landsat-5 TM in 1987, and Landsat-7 ETM+ in 2000 using geographic information systems. The study showed that the increase in croplands between 1972 and 1987 took place at the expense of the irreversible losses of Lake Amik and its related wetlands of over 53 km(2). In the period of 1972 to 2000, croplands, settlements, and evergreen forests increased by 174%, 106%, and 14%, respectively. The increase in settlements occurred mostly to the detriment of croplands. Given the average rates of all the land-use transitions, and associated changes in SOC density for the study region of 3930 km(2), total SOC pool was estimated to decrease by 14.1% from 130.1 Mt in 1972 to 111.7 Mt in 2000.

Monitoring and Assessment of Land Use and Land Cover Changes (1977 - 2010) in Kamrup District of Assam, India Using Remote Sensing and Gis Techniques

“…Increasing anthropogenic pressure such as land use/land cover changes, air, water, and soil pollution (Fearnside, 2001;Sherbinin et al, 2007), degradation of soil quality and losses in biological diversity causes the threatening of the overall productivity of ecosystem functioning at regional as well as global scales (Noss, 2001; Kilic et al, 2004;Kumar, 2011). It is also concluded as vulnerability of places and people to climatic, economic or sociopolitical perturbations (Kasperson et al, 1995;Turner et al, 2003;Lambin et al, 2003).…”

Optimizing land cover classification accuracy for change detection, a combined pixel-based and object-based approach in a mountainous area in Mexico

“…The study area includes an international biodiversity hotspot, in which (illegal) forest clearance is the main cause of increased landscape fragmentation and habitat loss, which are key contributors to the decline in biodiversity and other key ecological functions (Hanski, 2011;Krauss et al, 2010;Turner, Meyer, & Skole, 1994;Vitousek, 1994). As a result of these declines, land use changes are recognized as serious threats to terrestrial mountain ecosystems (Çakir, Sivrikaya, & Keleş , 2008;Harris, 1984;Kilic, Evrendilek, Berberoglu, & Demirkesen, 2006).…”

Deteksi Perubahan Penggunaan Lahan Dengan Citra Landsat Dan Sistem Informasi Geografis: Studi Kasus Di Wilayah Metropolitan Bandung, Indonesia

“…Sebagai contoh, kajian tentang perubahan tutupan lahan di bagian wilayah benua Afrika selama kurun waktu sepuluh tahun (Lambin dan Ehrlich, 1997); pantauan terhadap perubahan tutupan lahan di wilayah bagian Kota Bogota, Kolombia (Mendoza dan Etter, 2002); pendeteksian perubahan lahan dan tutupan lahan menggunakan citra satelit di Atlanta (Yang dan Lo, 2002); kajian terhadap perubahan guna lahan dan tutupan lahan di wilayah mediterania Turki (Kilic, et al, 2006); serta analisis terhadap perkembangan dan kesesuaian guna lahan di Kota Kahranmanmaras, Turki (Doygun, et al, 2008). Selain itu, penggunaan berbagai jenis data penginderaan jauh dan analisis Sistem Informasi Geografis (SIG) telah dilakukan untuk menganalisis perubahan lahan maupun tutupan lahan, diantaranya bisa dilihat dari hasil penelitian oleh Lambin dan Ehrlich (1997) yang menggunakan sepuluh tahun data NOAA-AVHRR; penggunaan data citra landsat TM oleh Yang and Lo, 2002; kajian evaluasi dan pemantauan perubahan guna lahan menggunakan SIG dan penginderaan jauh oleh Shalaby dan Tateishi (2007), dan Xiao, et al (2006).…”