Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
FRESENIUS ENVIRONMENTAL BULLETIN, cilt.16, sa.11A, ss.1325-1330, 2007 (SCI-Expanded)
Remote Sensing (RS) and Geographic Information System (GIS), technologies offer suitable tools for long-term monitoring and assessment of land-use change. Turkey's Western Mediterranean region is an area of national and international economic importance from natural, agricultural, historical and tourism perspectives. Recognizing these facts, this study aims to identify and highlight temporal land-use changes in the Belek Special Protected Area indicating common land-use tendencies of the Western Mediterranean region. Land-use changes and transformations in the last 23 years were determined using RS and GIS technologies with high-resolution satellite images and aerial photographs. The study area is approximately 13.000 ha, and 13 different land-use classes were identified as well as changes in each class analyzed between 1981-2004. Results indicate that forest areas decreased from 627.1 ha in 1981, to 624.9 ha in 1992, and 219.3 ha in 2004. Similarly, stable coastal dune areas decreased from 387.9 ha in 1981, over 324.9 ha in 1992, to 195.1 ha in 2004. In contrast, tourism and secondary residence area land-use increased rapidly from 13.0 ha in 198 1, to 231.0 ha in 1992, and 1052.5 ha in 2004. In general, a reduction of natural and agricultural land classes by human activity was observed in the last 23 years, and most of this land appears to be converted to tourism and secondary residence use. Specifically, between 1981 and 2004, land-use changed the Belek Special Protected Area exhibiting a 65 % reduction in forest areas, 50 % reduction in stable coastal dune areas, and an 800 % increase in tourism and secondary residence areas. According to these findings, almost all converted areas were degraded by human activity without consideration of sustainable land-use principles, causing serious environmental problems for the natural resources of the region, which cannot be recovered. Although this region is protected by law, negative tendencies cannot be prevented by the existing law. Therefore, legally based land-use planning that takes into account the region's socio-economic conditions, is necessary to protect this region.