Open AccessLand Use Changes in Turkish Territories: Patterns, Directions and Socio-Economic Impacts on Territorial Management
Author(s) -
Sema Yılmaz Genç,
Arian Behradfar,
Rui Alexandre Castanho,
Derviş Kırıkkaleli,
José Manuel Naranjo Gómez,
Luís Loures
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
current world environment/current world environment
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2320-8031
pISSN - 0973-4929
DOI - 10.12944/cwe.16.1.11
Subject(s) - arable land , land use , land cover , agriculture , geography , agricultural land , land management , environmental resource management , land use, land use change and forestry , scale (ratio) , environmental planning , land development , business , environmental science , cartography , civil engineering , engineering , archaeology
Human activities have been changing the Earth's cover at an unparalleled scale. In this regard, and cover mapping is a decisive advantage for several kinds of research. Also, the outcomes from these investigations could be applied to plan a sustainable regional governance policy. This article studied land-use changes in the Turkish Territories in 1990, 2000, 2012, and 2018 using the Coordination of Information on the Environment (CORINE) data. The results showed a significant and gradual land-use change from agricultural to mostly artificial surfaces. The majority of land-use changes are related to industrial and commercial units and construction sites. The most degraded agricultural land uses are non-irrigated arable land and pastures, while there is an increasing trend in permanently irrigated land. This study's outcome can be considered a surveying baseline for the comparative analysis of similar works for different land-use change trends in Europe or worldwide. Landuse change studies are reliable tools to evaluate the human activities and footprint of proposed strategies and policies in a territory. This article also enables us to understand that Turkey's decisive actors should design development policies to encourage industrial investments and agricultural ventures in Turkey and adapt the land-use/land cover strategies to mitigate agricultural land fragmentation.