Determining land cover change in Korfez district (Kocaeli) with remote sensing and gis (1987-2015

The aim of this study is to identify the land cover changes between the years of 1987, 1995, 2003 and 2015 by using satellite images. The study area has taken place in Çatalca – Kocaeli part of the Marmara Region, The North side of İzmit Gulf, in the route of TEM motorway, D-100 Highway and the Railway. Some of big and important industrial foundations of Turkey such as Tüpraş, İgsaş, Gübretaş and Nuh Çimento have existed in the study area. Among this, Tüpraş is the first in 500 industrial company in Turkey. With the population of 151.149 in 2015 census, Korfez District is one of Kocaeli districts which are growing in population. The population growth by the influence of especially industrialization has affected the spatial distribution of the settling that shapes land cover, the industrial zone, agricultural and forest zone. CORINE land cover classes with Landsat 5 TM 1987, Landsat 5 TM 1995, Landsat 5 TM 2003 and Landsat 8 OLI 2015 dated images has been used to identify this change in the land cover. As the method, controlled classification technique in the Erdas Imagine 9.2 software has been applied. When looked at the change in the study area between 1987 - 2015, the most increasing change in the land cover by the rate of 2% has been in the Industrial, Commercial, and Transportation units with Mine, Discharge and Building areas. Secondly with the rate of 0,4 %, it has been in the area that we classified as Urban Structure. by the rate of 1,69%, the most decreasing change in the land cover between 1987 – 2015 has been observed in the agricultural area. Secondly with the rate of 0.8%, it has been seen in the forest and semi-natural areas. A decrease in agricultural area, and forest and semi-cultural areas is in question while Industrial, Commercial and Transportation units with Mine, Discharge and Building areas with Urban Structure are increasing. To obtained results are compared with the data obtained from land studies and the database of Land Monitoring System National Land Cover (ARIS) which is formed by the T.R. Ministry of Forestry and Waterworks. Keywords: Land Cover Change, Landsat 5 TM 1987, Landsat 5 TM 1995, Landsat 5 TM 2003 and Landsat 8 OLI 2015, Körfez District