Özet:

Water is one of the basic needs for human life. Therefore, river basins are densely populated than other areas. The middle and lower catchment of the Melet River, which is the study area, is also one of the densely populated areas. Increasing population in the study area caused some changes in land use. The aim of this study is to investigate the land use changes that occurred in the study area between 2002 and 2015 in terms of geography. The study area, which is separated from the upper catchment of the Melet River by Topçam Strait, is located between the Middle and Eastern Sections of the Black Sea Region and has an area of approximately 865 km2. In this study, Geographical Information Systems, Remote Sensing methods and field investigations were used together. The temporal change in land use was determined by comparing the Landsat 7 TM satellite image of 18 October 2002 and the Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS satellite image of 28 September 2015 with the data obtained during field works. For this purpose, the aforementioned images are obtained from the website of The United States Geological Survey. Remote Sensing analysis is performed with ENVI 5.1 program and the results are mapped using ArcGIS 10.2 program. As a result, it was understood that the forests in the study area lost 103 km2 areas, agricultural lands have gained an area of 122.9 km2 between 2002 and 2015. During the field studies, it was observed that forests and pastures were destroyed and hazelnut and kiwi gardens were installed in their places. These events, which damage the natural vegetation and supports erosion, also limit the habitats of the wild animals. Therefore, the natural vegetation, wildlife existence, and agricultural activities of the study area should be assessed together and developed a sustainable use method.

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