Land use - Why care? (Turkey)

One of the policies that must be developed for the environment is creating land use plans. The sustainability of natural resources such as soil and water depends on the proper use of land according to its capacity. Determining changes in land cover/land use at specific intervals accelerates decision-making processes and helps in taking environmentally sensitive decisions quickly.

The 2006 Corine land cover data show that land in Turkey consists of 42.35 % agricultural areas and 54.04 % forestry and semi-natural vegetation where almost 96 % of the country's land can be defined as natural environment. The increases in population, urbanisation and industrialisation have raised the use of non-intentional agricultural fields.