GIS-based site suitability analysis of afforestation in Konya province, Turkey

Year 2021, Volume: 3 Issue: 2, 89 - 95, 17.11.2021

Ceren Yağcı Fatih İşcan

Abstract

In order for the land management to be applied correctly and effectively, importance should be given to the location selection studies. Determining the most suitable area according to the purpose and initiating studies will provide social and economic gain for the countries. As forest areas occupy large lands, it is actually a necessity to determine the areas to be afforested by site selection. In the study, suitable afforestation areas are selected by using Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method in Konya province, which has an arid and semi-arid climate. For this purpose, within the scope of the study, land use capability (LUC), large soil groups (LSG), rainfall, slope, aspect, and erosion were used as criteria. Using these criteria in GIS, suitable areas for afforestation map for Konya province was obtained. According to results, 15% of the study area is the most suitable area, 25.52% is suitable, 28.95% is medium, 12.76% is low and 17.77% is found very low for the afforestation. The fields obtained were presented to the public with the help of the website created. It is expected that tree planting activities will increase thanks to the website showing the suitable areas for tree planting.

Keywords

GIS, GIS, AHP, AHP, Afforested, Afforested

References

• Ateşoğlu A (2015). Remote sensing and GIS applications for suitable afforestation area selection in Turkey. Journal of the Faculty of Forestry Istanbul University, 65(1), 53-59.
• Bandy D (1994). Alternatives to slash-and-burn. A global strategy. International Centre for Research in Agroforestry, Nairobi, Kenya.
• Dilek E F, Şahin Ş & Yılmazer İ (2008). Afforestation areas defined by GIS in Gölbaşı specially protected area Ankara/Turkey. Environmental monitoring and assessment, 144(1), 251-259.
• Eslami A, Roshani M &, Hassani M (2010). The application of GIS in selection of suitable species for afforestation in southern forest of Caspian Sea. Journal of Environmental Sciences 4(3),223-226.
• Güner Ş T, Çömez A, Özkan K, Karataş R & Çelik N (2016). Modelling the productivity of Anatolian black pine plantations in Turkey. Journal of the Faculty of Forestry Istanbul University,66(1), 159-172.
• Hashemi S A (2018). Ecological capability evaluation for afforestation and forest expansion using Geographic Information System (GIS) in management area of Caspian Sea. Anais da Academia Brasileira de Ciências, 90(4), 3761-3768.
• Ismail M H (2009). Developing policy for suitable harvest zone using multi criteria evaluation and GIS-based decision support system. International Journal of economics and finance, 1, 105-117.
• Kalu C, Edet D I & Chukwuenye C E (2014). Assessment of Afforestation and Reforestation Efforts by Forestry Department, Ministry of Environment, Imo State. Journal of Research in Forestry, Wildlife and Environment, 6(2), 54-65.
• Kantarcı M D, Özel H B, Ertekin M & Kırdar E (2011). An assessment on the adaptatıon of 6 tree specıes to steppe habıtat durıng Konya-Karapınar sand-dune afforestatıons. Journal of Bartın Faculty of Forestry, 13(19),107-127.
• Muğla M K & Türk T (2020). Detection of potential afforestation fields by analytical hierarchy process and geographical information systems. Journal of geodesy and geoinformation, 2,103-120.
• Nas B & Berktay A (2006). Groundwater contamination by nitrates in the city of Konya,(Turkey): A GIS perspective. Journal of Environmental management, 79(1), 30-37.
• Piran H, Maleknia R, Akbari H, Soosani J & Karami O (2013). Site selection for local forest park using analytic hierarchy process and geographic information system (case study: Badreh County). International Research Journal of Applied and Basic Sciences, 6(7), 930-935.
• Saaty T L (1980). The analytical hierarchy process, planning, priority. Resource allocation. RWS publications, USA.
• Tonguç F, Kadıoğulları A İ & Gürkaynak M (2017). Determining Priorities of the Potential Reforestation Areas Using Geographical Information Systems with Special Reference to Kahta State Forest Administration. Journal of Bartin Faculty of Forestry, 19(1), 229-239.
• Jing W, Zhao W, Jia L, Hu X & Cherubini F (2021). Soil desiccation trends after afforestation in the Loess Plateau of China. Journal of Soils and Sediments, 1-12.
• Zare R, Babaeı K S & Mataji A (2011). Suggestion the appropriate species for afforestation in South Hillside of Alborz Mountain by using GIS (case study: Dareh Vesieh Watershed). Renewable Natural Resources Research, 2(1), 55-67.
• Zorner R J, Trabucco A, Bossio D A & Verchot L V (2008). Climate change mitigation: a spatial analysis of global land suitability for clean development mechanism afforestation and reforestation. Agric. Ecosyst.Environ., 126, 67–80.
• Zydroń A & Bober Ł (2013). Opracowanie koncepcji zalesień dla gminy Tarnowo Podgórne. Rocznik Ochrona Środowiska, 15(3), 2942-2961.