Methodology of collect earth using multi-purpose land monitoring and evaluation: Bartın River basin case of Turkey

The world is in a rapid change and transformation. Natural resources are rapidly being destroyed in the changing world. The importance of limited natural resources is increasing within each day. Stability of available resources depends on sustainable use within the framework of decent planning. In 2015, "Sustainable Development Goals" was determined by the United Nations. One of the global indicators under "the Protecting Terrestrial Ecosystems" target is land cover. Land cover is important to demonstrate the use of natural resources and determining the changes. For a proper planning work, knowing the current structure is one of the most important steps. Today, technology is showing a rapid development. It is necessary to benefit from the developing technology at the maximum level in the studies to be performed. The use of remote sensing (RS) methods and geographic information systems (GIS) in land cover classes allows us to obtain fast and reliable data. Collect Earth (CE) methodology used in this study is integrated with remote sensing and geographical information systems. The methodology is free open source software developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). CE allows us to analyze data using different medium and high resolution satellite platforms. Bartın River Basin was chosen as the subject of this study. 5.063 trial areas were determined systematically at 560x750 meters intervals in the determined area. Land cover and changes, current trend and vegetation status were determined in the trial areas. The data were analyzed with Saiku analysis software and the results were interpolated to the whole area. As a result of the study, the following area types were identified in the Bartın River Basin; 149.336 ha forest area, 34,789 ha agricultural area, 21,580 ha pasture area, 5,973,5 ha residential area, 168 ha wetland, and 1,135,8 ha area other land type assets. In the basin, 6,352 ha greening and 4.122,5 ha land degradation were detected in the area. In addition, several analyzes have been carried out such as land use/cover status, changes and trends, tree and shrubs and their coverage rates.