A new basin management concept for Turkey: National basin management strategy

Abstract

Turkey has been divided into 25 hydrological basins and total average annual flow from these basins amounts to 186 billion m3. According to DSI data, 36% of the 112 billion m3 available water resources in Turkey is utilized at present, of which 32 billion m3 is used for irrigation, 7 billion m3 for drinking and domestic purposes, and 5 billion m3for industrial purposes. The basin management approaches and projects implemented after the 1990s focused on the combination of conservation and rehabilitation of natural resources and development of low-income rural communities dependent on the use of these resources for their livelihood, by adopting a participatory planning and implementation approach. Basin Master Plans, River Basin Protection Action Plans and River Basin Management Plans are basic plans that are prepared and implemented in Turkey through integrated basin management approach. In the light of the above assessments, National Basin Management Strategy NBMS aims at defining a set of policies for sustainable management of Turkey’s basins, as supported by results focused and concrete objectives, and the goals to be attained to achieve the objectives together with the agencies responsible for attaining these goals; and encouraging and supporting the public sector, private sector and non-governmental organizations to act in cooperation through a coordinated and participatory approach. NBMS will be implemented between 2015 and 2023. Objective and scope of NBMS; strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of basin management; criteria for prioritizing basin areas and investments; spatial framework in basin management; institutional structure; adaptation of basin management to climate change and monitoring and evaluation systems were determined in NBMS. This article includes Summary of NBMS, criteria for prioritizing basin areas and investments and 2023 NBMS Goals and a key NBMS project “Sustainable Land Management and Climate Friendly Agriculture Project”

Keywords

• NBMS,sustainable land management,rehabilitation,restoration

References

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