Examination of the Effects of Climate Change on Türkiye through the Google Earth Engine Platform

Abstract

The objective of this research is to assess the effects of climate change on Türkiye by utilizing data catalogues provided by the Google Earth Engine (GEE) cloud-computing platform. The utilized data catalogues encompassed precipitation, Land Surface Temperature (LST), EvapoTranspiration (ET), Potential EvapoTranspiration (PET), Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI), Vegetation Condition Index (VCI), and Forest Area Loss (FAL). Data spanning the years 2001-2022 were collected, and analyses were conducted separately for seven geographical regions of Türkiye on both an annual and seasonal basis. Initially, trend analysis techniques were applied to the individual data sets, followed by an examination of correlations among them. Notably, significant decreasing and increasing trends were observed in annual precipitation and LST data in the Eastern Anatolia region, respectively. Furthermore, a significant increasing trend was identified in annual ET data across all regions except Eastern Anatolia. Conversely, significant increasing trends were noted in annual PET data in Eastern Anatolia and the Aegean regions. Additionally, significant increasing trends were discerned in annual NDVI, EVI, and VCI data across all regions. Experiments revealed that the ET exhibited robust correlations with the NDVI (0.77), EVI (0.79) and VCI (0.81). Furthermore, the NDVI demonstrated strong correlations with EVI (0.99) and VCI (0.96).