Share of mines in Diyarbakır land use

It is important to use tools such as mine maps and geographic information systems (GIS) in order to manage the sustainability and environmental impacts of mining activities. These tools play an important role in the effective management and planning of mining sites. Turkey is a country rich in mineral resources diversity. Mining activities are widely carried out in Diyarbakir province, which has various mineral resources. Among them, the most widespread mine type is marble. Marble is followed by limestone and phosphate. Basalt, lead & zinc and sand & gravel are among other important mineral types. The dimensions of these activities should be known for effective management of mine sites, planning, environmental impacts and sustainability of mining activities throughout the province. The aim of this study is to display Diyarbakir mines by using provincial and district maps and to determine the area covered by mines on the surface of Diyarbakir province, by using maps and mine boundaries. In this study, the lands where mining areas are located were shown on both provincial and district maps and land use of mining activities were found by calculating their surface areas. It is determined that there are 124 mine sites in Diyarbakir province, spreading over an area of 36,888,988 square meters. By processing the surface area information of each field regarding these mines, which are seen as gypsum, borrow, copper, barite, basalt, phosphate, limestone, clay, siltstone, chrome, sand-gravel, lead-zinc, marl, marble and pumice, mine site maps for each district of the province were produced. Later, a provincial map was created by combining these maps. When compared to the surface area of Diyarbakir province, it is seen that the spread of mining areas constitutes approximately 0.24% of the total surface area of the province. It has been understood that this land surface area ratio constitutes an average value when compared to some countries where land use share of mining activities are determined. With this study, the necessity of mapping mining activities and determining the land use share of mine sites on both provincial and country level in Turkey has been revealed.