Land use - Drivers and pressures (Turkey)

Structural pressures exist regarding land use in Turkey. The various kinds of land, and especially arable land, can have problems of varying types and dimensions resulting from the different sorts of soil. 14.2 % of Turkey’s soil is deeper than 90 cm while the remaining 85.8 % is divided into 11.9 % moderately deep (50‑90 cm), 30.5 % shallow (20 50 cm) and 37.2 % very shallow (<20 cm) land. It is indeed a disadvantage for Turkey’s agriculture that shallow soil constitutes a large share that constrains the type and amount of production. .

Turkey is one of the countries subject to a high degree of erosion due to its topographical structure, climate, the incorrect agricultural methods used, the excess pasture and forest destruction and the fact that most land is prone to erosion. In addition, the slope conditions make agricultural processes difficult and facilitate erosion which also pose a significant land problem in Turkey.

The rapid population increase and industrialisation has increased rural to urban migration and led to the establishment of settlement areas replacing productive agricultural land in certain regions. The small areas of land in agricultural enterprises cause the producers to use non-productive fields (grassland-pasture, forest) for agricultural production. Tourism investments that are not sensitive to the environment may cause irreversible damage in coastal and forest areas. Human activity that has negative impacts on wetlands causes the degradation of ecosystems.

The maps that show Corine Land Cover (CLC) 2000, 2006 and the change between 2000 and 2006 can be found below.

Map 1: MAP OF LAND USE IN TURKEY IN 2000

Map 2: MAP OF LAND USE IN TURKEY FOR 2006

                Map 3: MAP OF LAND USE CHANGE IN TURKEY BETWEEN 2000 AND 2006

The change in land cover between 2000 and 2006 shows an increase in settlement areas and water bodies, and a decrease in agricultural use, forests and semi-natural vegetation and wetland. When we evaluate the direction of change, approximately 25 952 ha forest areas, 13 451 ha agricultural land, and 1 515 ha wetland within the country's surface area have changed to classification types other than their sub‑use classifications and are now being used in ways other than intended. According to the settlement indicators, the highest overall change in the county is the increase in artificial areas with a size of 37 729 ha. The five provinces with the largest increase are presented in Graph 3.

The water bodies that were observed to increase by approximately 4 141 ha in size include dams and small lakes. A large part of this increase consists of recently constructed dams.

When the overall use of ecologically important wet areas is evaluated, an average of 1 500 ha has been opened to use in non-intentional ways. Seasonal changes were not taken into account in these areas where the six years of change was determined.

The study has also detected changes that might destroy the forest ecosystem although the main source of the observed changes in forest areas, national treasures and natural assets, can be interpreted as dynamism of the country's forests in general.