Investigation of Turkey's beaches and coastal sand dunes with remote sensing methods

Marine and coastal research around the world has been the subject of much study in the last century. Different studies on many subjects such as the intense human activities in the coastal areas where the sea and the land meet and the preparation of coastal management plans accordingly, the existence and change of coastal ecosystems, and the elements of coastal geomorphology are carried out in these regions. Beach and coastal dunes are the most important units in terms of coastal geomorphology components. The study of these fields will be a source of data for many disciplines such as geography, earth sciences, biology, and water sciences. Within the scope of this thesis, the existing beach and coastal dunes in our country were determined using remote sensing tools and analyzed by mapping them in the Geographical Information Systems (GIS) environment. Factors such as the distribution of beaches and coastal dunes across the country, formation environments, sediment characteristics, destruction and tourism conditions, and afforestation studies were investigated. 7052 beaches and 114 coastal sand dunes have been identified with a coastline of 8592 km in Turkey. It has been determined that 6107 of the determined beaches are on the coasts of the sea and 945 of them are on the shores of 15 large lakes owned by Turkey. With 2798 beaches, our region with the highest number of beaches has been determined as the Aegean Sea. The total area of the beaches is 106 km2 and has a length of 3,968 km. In the coastal dunes, the Aegean Sea is the region with the most coastal dunes, with 37. The total area of 114 coastal dunes in our country is 125.3 km2, and their total length is 435.2 km. The study was obtained from 2021-2022 satellite images and measurements were made on the places and shapes of the beach and coastal dunes between the specified dates. These numbers vary slightly, especially when considering the wave mechanisms of the beach areas, the stability of the formation environments and the destruction caused by the use of the beaches. The destruction of coastal dunes and afforestation and area reduction efforts cause the coastal dune areas to shrink gradually. This study is the first study conducted in Turkey within the scope of beaches and coastal dunes and is an inventory. It is thought that the data and maps created in the study will be a basic data source for future scientific coastal, ecology and engineering studies. In addition, it is hoped that it will be an important resource for the evaluation and protection of beaches and coastal dunes, taking into account coastal management studies in national and local governments. Keywords: Beach, Coastal Dune, Coastal, Geographical Information Systems