Nitrogen pollution management of groundwater for karstic regions: Antalya Altinova region application

In Antalya where the intensive agricultural activities take a place, greenhouses occupy a large place. Due to the increasing population, greenhouse activities have become increasingly inevitable. Also, the farmers have begun to increase chemical and organic fertilizer applications in order to increase efficiency of obtained productions from agricultural regions. Increased fertilizer applications pose a risk of pollution to groundwater. Discharging excess fertilizers together with irrigation water increased groundwater pollution. Excessive increase of fertilizer applications causeds nitrogen pollution. Pollution elements leak to the ground-water easily, because of Antalya region has karstic structure. In this thesis, the nitrogen pollution control management application was discussed for the Antalya-Altınova district where greenhouse activities were common. As a result of the field work in Altınova district, agricultural and urban areas were existed in this region. Nitrogen budget was calculated for these different two areas. The required data sets for nitrogen budget calculation in agricultural areas were collected with field study in two different periods (November 2015 and May 2015) in Altınova district. First follow-up work in field was realized at 50 points. 25 monitoring points were chosen to the best represent the district which was evaluated together with water quality measurements, the results of nitrate analysis and observations. Data sets such as greenhouse area, age, used field, source of soil, growing product types, efficiency of production and crop-harvest periods about the field were learnt from farmers and greenhouse owners at the selected 25 monitoring points. Also, nitrogen budget calculation in urban areas was formed in independent zone that lacks sewer system. In the district, houses were connected to septic system. A large part of the nitrogen load is occurred in the septic tanks. In this thesis, locating areas where is sensitive to nitrate within applied "Tarımsal Kaynaklı Nitrat Kirliliğine Karşı Suların Korunması Yönetmeliği" in Turkey and it is aimed to obtain suggestions on the management of nitrogen pollution for Altınova which was selected region about the development of "good agricultural practises".