Long-Term Monitoring of Wetlands via Remote Sensing and Gis: A Case Study From Turkey

Abstract

Remote sensing that is a low cost data source capable of making temporal observations has more advantages than the traditional methods to obtain land-use/cover change maps. In this study, temporal land-use/cover change of surface water bodies in Konya Closed Basin was evaluated via Landsat satellite images for the past 30 years. The basin, located in Central Anatolia Region of Turkey, faces water scarcity problems; however, wet agricultural activities are still favoured and practiced. Therefore, water resources are becoming more important than ever; public complains about long-lasting drought conditions and on lessening of surface water resources. There are 16 surface water bodies, and 3 of them are lakes; whereas the rest are wetlands of importance. Two of them are Ramsar sites. Results indicate that the surface area of the water bodies in Konya Closed Basin declined by approximately 23.5% within the inspection years. One of the important wetlands of the basin named as Akgol Wetland has almost lost its water surface by 96% at the same time interval, and is in danger of extinction. Thus, this vulnerable wetland has been focused on in the study. The decrease of water surface in the wetland is matched with the meteorological conditions.

Opportunities provided by remote sensing data for watershed management: example of Konya Closed Basin

“…A noticeable areal change has occurred at Akgol Wetland, that is an internationally recognized water body of the basin, has almost lost its water surface by 96% during a period of 30 years , and thus, it is in danger of extinction (Musaoglu et al, 2018). This finding was the outcome derived from the various satellite images used belonging to different years.…”

“…The area of each of these water bodies as well as their conservation status are given in Table 1. Musaoglu et al (2018) conducted a long-term monitoring study of the wetlands in this basin via RS and Geographic Information System (GIS). The results derived indicated that the overall surface area of the water bodies in KCB decreased by approximately 23.5% within the inspection period of 1987-2017.…”

Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Water Table Depth Associated with Changing Agricultural Land Use in an Arid Zone Oasis

“…Groundwater is one of the most valuable and vulnerable freshwater resources [1], which plays a critical role in irrigated agriculture and global food security [2]. In addition, groundwater serves as the primary source of drinking water in both rural and urban areas, providing fresh water storage for domestic, agricultural, and industrial demands, while meeting basic human needs and maintaining the ecological balance and aquatic ecosystems [3][4][5].…”

Comparison of Object Based Machine Learning Classifications of Planetscope and Worldview-3 Satellite Images for Land Use / Cover

“…There have been many case studies conducted in this area. In a case study, water bodies of KCB were monitored from 1987 to 2017 by Landsat satellite data associated with meteorological data, a decrement in Akgol wetland area is observed as 96% (Musaoglu et al, 2018). In another case study, adverse impacts of dam constructions on the study area were monitored by Landsat satellite images and meteorological data (Dervisoglu et al, 2017).…”