Özet:

The aim of this study is to map the habitats in the Big Meander Delta National Park, Bafa Lake Natural Park and its vicinity, to analyse the spatial properties of mapped habitats and the relationship between defined habitats and land surface temperature. The main materials of this study are composed of Sentinel 2A (dated 11 August 2017) and Landsat 8 (dated 26 August 2017) satellite images, soil map and digital elevation model. To achieve the purpose of this study, we employed vegetation analysis, object-based habitat classification, determination of land surface temperature (LST) values, and analysis of the relationships between habitats and their LST values. In order to determine the relationships between habitats and LST values, the Spearman correlation analysis and the Zonal statistics of the whole study area were conducted. The results show that whilst the dominant habitat types are Market gardens and horticulture, High-stem orchards and Standing fresh water; Eastern Mediterranean Tamarix tickets, Sarcopoterium phryganas, and Mud flats and sand flats constituted the rare habitats. The highest spatial connectivity was provided by Standing Fresh Water, Running water and Eastern kermes oak garrigues. Water and wetland habitat types have lower mean LST values compared to habitats with little or no vegetation and salt marshes. Our results confirmed that the presence of vegetation and water features as well as their type, abundance and coverage are effective factors in the formation of lower mean LST values in rural areas, too. However, the size of and the distance between those habitat patches were not significantly correlated with their mean LST values in our study area. So, further empirical research with time intervals might be necessary to efficiently measure the relationships between the spatial characteristics of habitat patches and their mean LST values at different times in a year. In any case, we believe that this study is important for initiating a monitoring research on the changes in habitats and the associated land surface temperatures. Such a future work can help us to provide early step for adopting suitable policies for either overcome or minimise the local climate changes and other related problems.

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