Determination of land use/cover changes in Konya closed basin by satellite images

The examination of land use/cover changes had been occured in the Konya Closed Basin (KCB), which is the largest closed basin in Turkey, is very important for the future both the basin and wetlands located in this basin (especially the Salt Lake). The aim of this study is to determine land use/cover changes that occur in the Konya Closed Basin by remote sensing. LANDSAT satellite images which were date of 1984, 1990, 2002, 2007 and 2011 years were used for this purpose. These images were processed by ArcGIS and ERDAS softwares. In image processing stage, processes of image enhancement, geometric and radiometric correction, classification for visual interpretation, creating and interpretation to change analysis table (exchange matrix) are carried out. The multitemporal changes of land use/cover were carried out by exchange matrix. Obtained accuracies are 80.14 % for 1984, 78.79 % for 1990, 79.22 % for 2002, 77.60 % 2007 and 76.87 % for 2011 years. According to obtained exchange matrix, it is seen that there is increase in salt covered areas located inner part of the Salt Lake and around the Salt Lake, there is decrease water covered areas. At the same time, there are contractions in all wetlands of the Salt Lake Basin. On the other hand, it was obtained decrease in bare areas of Konya Closed Basin in big percentage. The reason of this decrease is the increase of the green vegetations in Konya Closed Basin.