Monitoring and assessment of land-use and land-cover changes in high mountains of Turkey

Approximately 27% of Earth's surface is covered by mountainous areas in which about 15% of the total population of the world is settled. Moreover, almost half of the population in the world is dependent on the mountainous area regarding the essential needs. Mountainous areas supply the requirements including food supply, need for freshwater, biodiversity, and mineral resources. Mountainous fields play a crucial role in terms of ecology, aesthetics, and socioeconomic needs. They have a significant place in climate change and the evaluation of its consequences. The problems of land cover/use in mountainous areas caused by human interference lead to climate change. Thus, it is of high importance to monitor and evaluate the human-based alteration of the land and ecological parameters for climate change. The current study aims to assess the potential condition of high mountain ecosystems in Turkey, its long-term inclination in the ecological parameters, and to evaluate its results within the scope of global climate change. In this study, the High and Scattered High Mountains in Turkey was selected as a base map according to the K3 classification presented by Global Mountain Explorer. In addition, Collect Earth software, which is a multi-purpose observation and evaluation software developed by FAO, was used. For the study field, data were generated for the 4018 plot (0.5 ha) area and they were interpolated to these areas. The results of the analysis revealed that Forest and Grassland has the largest land use area. When the change in land use and land cover of High and Scattered High Mountain classes between 2000-2022 were analysed, it was determined that the Forest area decreased to 179376.40 ha. On the other hand, the Settlement area was the one with the highest increase. A vegetation increase to 2472831. 6 ha was observed when the NDVI change areas in High and Scattered High Mountain Classes were examined. This vegetation increase was possibly interpreted as an improvement depending on the vegetation within the land classes. The highest increase of NDVI was observed in the forest and grassland. Considering the changes in ecological elements in High and Scattered High Mountain Classes, it was observed that precipitations had a tendency to decrease while the maximum and minimum temperatures increase. Similarly, the evapotranspiration changes and climatic water deficit was detected to increase.