Development of sustainable land use planning scenarios for prevention of water erosion: Sulakyurt Dam Basin

Water erosion is one of the most important causes of land degradation. Landscape restoration is required in many areas, especially in ecosystem services, in landscapes degraded as a result of erosion. It is very vital to determine the priority areas and the application to be made in economic and management terms for landscape restoration. Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE) is the most prevalent method in which scenarios are produced in order to prevetion of soil losses in the world. In this study, which was carried out in the Sarıkızlı stream sub-basin of the Sulakyurt Dam Basin in Kırıkkale/Sulakyurt district, it was aimed to obtain temporal and spatial distribution of soil losses and create land management scenarios to prevent from soil losses. In study area, potential soil loss average was estimated as 42.35 t ha-1 year-1 and actual soil loss average was estimated as 39.49 t ha-1 year-1. According to the simulation model, 27.61% (2872 ha) of the study area is the first degree priority area for landscape restoration. 41.74% (1766 ha) of the forest, which is the land use where the highest soil loss is estimated in the basin, fall into the first degree priority areas. The study provides a guide for determining the erosion risk in landscape planning and restoration, producing simulation models to reduce soil losses, and revealing the methods to be used in restoration.