Investigation of the effect of sea level changes on southwest Black Sea coastal areas using geoinformatics technologies

The effects of climate change due to global warming have become more noticeable in recent years. One of the most important consequences of global warming is rising sea level. Sea level rise; it poses a threat to low-altitude coastal cities and deltas in the seaside countries. It is understood from the global and national studies; sea level increases will continue to accelerate in the coming years. The inward movement of the sea towards the land causes coastal line changes and loss of land in flooded areas. It will also lead to loss of yield in agricultural areas due to increased salinity in groundwater resources. In this study; using geoinformatics technologies the effect of sea level changes on southwestern Black Sea coastal areas was investigated. In this study, digital elevation model is produced from high accuracy and density airborne LiDAR (light detection and ranging) data and the coastal line of the study area is extracted. Then the flood area was determined for the end of the century projection based on this model. Sentinel 2A satellite image was used to produce a land use map by supervised classification and the area to be affected was calculated by applying overlap analysis to the flood area and land use map. As a result, it is determined that an area of 177.46 km² in the study area will be under the influence of flood at the end of the century. The study is a guiding study for determining the risks caused by sea level rises, preparing protection strategies and taking necessary measures. The evaluation of the findings obtained as a result of this study, especially in terms of the sustainability of the plans and projects planned to be realized around the study area, will contribute to our country.