Abstract
Land use/cover change impacts ecosystem services and functions such as forest health, biodiversity, and water production. Monitoring and assessing land use/cover changes provides an effective and accurate evaluation of human impact on the forest ecosystems. This study aims to determine spatial and temporal changes in land use/cover at a particular time period in a typical forest ecosystem of Turkey using geographical information systems (GIS). Specifically, the objective of this study is to analyze the main factors driving land use/cover change and the impacts of such changes in local and global perspective. Results showed that the total forested areas decreased from 5089 ha (41% of the study area) to 4426 ha (36% of the study area) during a 21 year period, which figures a net decrease of 663 ha (5%) forest areas and the average annual deforestation rate was 32 ha. Conifer forest (161 ha) completely transitioned to other cover types over 21-year period. Three major factors including distance from villages, distance from roads, and ground elevation were considered in evaluating forest disturbance. The results showed that these factors influence the reforestation/deforestation rates. Besides, forest disturbance was found to be closely related to distance from villages, distance from roads, and elevation. Key words: Deforestation, geographical information systems (GIS), human activities, land use/cover change, proximity analysis.
Highlights
Results showed that the total forested areas decreased from 5089 ha (41% of the study area) to 4426 ha (36% of the study area) during a 21 year period, which figures a net decrease of 663 ha (5%) forest areas and the average annual deforestation rate was 32 ha
The results from the spatial analysis indicated that the sizes of the sample villages, distance from the villages, and proximity to other villages were the major indicators of land use/cover change and forest disturbance around the villages
According to results from the maps, the total forested area decreased from 5089 ha (41% of the study area) to 4426 ha (36% of the study area) during a 21 year period, which figures a net decrease of 663 ha (5%) forest areas
Summary
Various researchers have monitored and discussed land use/cover changes using remote sensing and GIS in international scale (Wakeel et al, 2005; Dewan and Yamaguchi, 2009; Lele and Joshi, 2009; Mondal and Southworth, 2010; Bakr et al, 2010; Ruelland et al, 2010) and national scale in Turkey (Yıldırım et al, 2002; Musaoglu et al, 2006, 2007; Kılıç et al, 2006; Güler et al, 2007; Sivrikaya et al, 2007; Başkent and Kadıoğulları, 2007; Çakır et al, 2007; Keleş et al, 2008; Yuksel et al, 2008; Sivrikaya et al, 2009; Keleş et al, 2009). Most of the studies in Turkey have discussed land cover changes in forest ecosystems. There have been only a few studies attempting to document and analyze the main factors (example, topography, distance from road and residential areas) driving land use/cover change. Karanth et al (2006) investigated impacts of human activities related factors on land use/cover change in Bhadra Wildlife Sanctuary in India. They examined the specific ecological impacts associated with communities of thirteen villages in the study area. The results from the spatial analysis indicated that the sizes of the sample villages, distance from the villages, and proximity to other villages were the major indicators of land use/cover change and forest disturbance around the villages. The proximity to other villages increased the Sivrikaya et al 3685 disturbance due to higher access rate by multiple villages
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