Determination of citrus planted area by using high resolution satellite image: A case of Kuşadası

Citrus cultivation has great importance in foreign trade, industry, providing raw materials and satisfying food requirements of people. Citrus requires a product policy that includes a multi-year investment, production decision given according to a multi-year expectation, cultivation process that is constantly monitored for many years. The lack of such production/marketing policies in our country and the fact that the mediators are the determinants of the marketing system are the most important issues. As in all agricultural products, input costs in citrus production are increasing every year. The increase in the basic inputs such as fertilizers, pesticide, irrigation, and diesel fuel leaves the producer in a difficult situation. In the project implemented in Kuşadası district, which is located in the Aegean region; west coast of Aydın province of our country and has an important place in agriculture and tourism, the aim is to determine the areas of citrus cultivation and establish the preliminary estimation maps showing the physical and chemical characteristics of the agricultural land on these planted citrus trees. Using the remote sensing techniques and geographic information system, the area covered by the citrus planted areas and its soil characteristics have been demonstrated. By the virtue of the numerical data, the evaluation of the areas where the citrus is cultivated was carried out with high accuracy as seen in obtained values. By using screen digitization on High-resolution Worldview-2.(45*45cm) satellite images with eight multispectral bands, the distribution of areas where citrus cultivation is made are determined. It is possible to distinguish the citrus cultivated areas from other plant species in the study area by means of these high-resolution satellite images. The analysis results of the soil samples taken by the grid method in Kuşadası district from the citrus planted areas were determined and added by the "kriging" method to the database, which is composed within the geographical information system, and as a result, the preliminary estimation map is obtained. As a consequence of the observations made in citrus planted areas, it is important to understand the citrus's climate and soil demands with on-site practices, due to the fact that citrus plant has a labor-intensive production method. It will be only possible to minimize the damages that may occur during the time elapsed from the harvesting phase to the raw material stage in the market and cosmetic industry by on-site control. The economic situation of our country imposes the obligation to get high efficiency in order to meet the needs of people. In this context, a system with a technological infrastructure has been established in order to evaluate the information that can be used in the sector. Keywords: Citrus, geographic information system, remote sensing technique, sustainable productivity.