Environmental Impacts of Landslides: A Case Study from East Black Sea Region, Turkey

Abstract

There have been many advances in identification, forecasts, mitigative measures warning systems in relation to landslides; however, economic losses and fatalities due to landslides in the East Black Sea region appear to be growing. One of the major reasons for this is the increasing development of landslideprone areas in response to the demand for new settlement areas from a growing population. The undulating topography of the East Black Sea region means that these settlement areas created along the coastline and along the flat areas beside of rivers, and it these locations that are under continuous threat from mass movements particularly landslides. This paper focuses on the environmental impact of landslides by evaluating the mass movement hazard in the East Black Sea region. Landslides impact on the following elements of the environment in the study area: (1) the topography/morphology of land area, (2) the settlement region, (3) streams, and (4) land cover. The environmental disturbances are the results of general tendency toward the interaction of these elements.