Investigating land use change and land degradation in Coruh watershed due to Borcka and Deriner dams

Construction of seven large dams and hydroelectric power plants, a part of the Coruh Dams Project initiated by the State Water Affairs, over the Lower Coruh Watershed (LCW), the part of the Coruh River that runs within the borders of Artvin Province, has been affecting the River?s Valley especially during the construction stage. However, the negative effects of this big project on the Valley?s ecology and land-use have not been determined, yet. Therefore, to investigate the effects of two large dam projects (the Borcka Dam and hydroelectric power plant that has been completed and in use and the Deriner Dam and hydroelectric power plant that is still being constructed) on ecology and land-use was the main goal of this study. In addition, the other goal was to determine land-use changes on the Valley and create maps using Geographical Information Systems (GIS) along with summarizing erosion control and planting efforts for land degradation occurred especially during the construction of new roads.Results showed that the estimated land-use change in the Coruh River Valley was about 1,058.2 ha in addition to the 210.1 ha area that was degraded between the water level and the new road for the Borcka Dam and hydroelectric power plant. As for the Deriner Dam and hydroelectric power plant, approximately 2,698.5 ha area will be changed into a reservoir while about 1,316.1 ha area between the water level and the newly constructed road has been degraded.Moreover, our study indicated that a total of 311500 seedlings were planted by both the General Directorate of Forestation and Forest Directorate of Borcka District as erosion control and forestation efforts on areas degraded during the construction period and they spent 122,092.81 TL and 93,517.38 TL, respectively, for these efforts.One of the most important problems resulted in from the land-use changes occurred during this projects was the loss of the already-limited arable land since the majority of agricultural areas lie along the floodplains of the Coruh River. Especially considering the fact that Artvin Province has a mountainous and steep topography, the seriousness of this problem increases even more.