Assessment of landscape change in the manavgat river basin in the contex of landscape protection, planning and management

Landscapes change because they are the expression of the dynamic interaction between natural and cultural forces in the environment. Landscape change might be caused by natural processes or by human impacts. However, landscape modification by human activities is by far the most important cause of habitat loss and habitat fragmentation, reducing levels of biodiversity world wide. In this study, landscape changes were investigated in the Manavgat River Basin. The land use/land cover changes between 1955-1971, 1971-1981/1986 and 1981/1986-2010 were determined by using monoscopic aerial photos and RapidEye satellite images. It was found that the biggest changes at the basin were occurred in the form of conversion of forest lands into agricultural lands and of agricultural lands into settlement areas during 55 years period. The other important changes were the conversion of agricultural lands in itself because of crop diversification in the region and also the increase of water surface because of the construction of Oymapınar and Manavgat dams. In terms of landscape metrics, especially at the south part of the study area, a decrease in the natural patch numbers, the largest patch index and landscape shape index and an increase in the nearest neighbour distance were found. This result indicates that the number and size of natural patches between settlement and agricultural areas were decreased, and that the isolation of natural patches was increased gradually. Therefore cultural areas are getting more dominant and threatening natural areas. In the scope of the data gained from study, suggestions are given on protection, planning and management of landscapes in the Manavgat River Basin.