Analysis of the relationship between land use/cover change and climate change in the case of İstanbul

In the 18th century, especially with the increase in industrialization activities, the effects of people on nature increased. These effects have caused problems on a global scale today. Climate change is one of these global problems. This problem, which has ecological, social, economic and political effects, directly affects the Earth and humanity. In order to cope with this problem and to reduce its effects, many attempts and studies have been made at the national and international level. There are many natural and anthropogenic factors affecting climate change as well as the effects of this problem. These factors can be counted as many factors such as the increase in greenhouse gas concentration after industrialization, fossil fuel consumption, the effects of products used in daily life and air conditioning gases, land use/cover changes. While the changes on the landscape pattern affect the climate change, the climate change also affects the change on the landscape (desertification, melting of the glaciers, change in the vegetation, etc.). Landscape and climate act as an action-reaction mechanism. Understanding the relationship between landscape pattern and climate change will help to better understand and combat this problem. In this study, landscape pattern change and climate change processes that occurred in the period between 1984 and 2020 in Istanbul, the largest city of our country, were revealed, and the relationship between landscape pattern change and climate change was expressed mathematically using remote sensing techniques. According to the results of this thesis, between 1984 and 2020 in Istanbul, with the effect of rapid urbanization, artificial surfaces increased by 300%, while agricultural areas decreased by 303.09 km² by 19.80% and forest areas by 527.45 km² decreased by 17.5%. In a 36-year period, average air temperatures increased by 1.7 °C, and surface temperatures increased by 8 °C due to land use/cover changes and increase in air temperatures. According to the results obtained using the IPCC's ssp climate scenarios data, the temperature will increase by 3.2 °C and the total precipitation per square meter will increase by 153.9 mm in 2100 in Istanbul. While there is no direct relationship between air temperatures and precipitation regime and land use/cover, there are strong relationships between land surface temperature and land use/cover.