Conservation and sustainability of landscape diversity whit the example of power plants

The object of this dissertation is to present the effects of land cover/land use changes on the landscape diversity in the sub-basins where there are thermal power plants which are one of the non-renewable energy sources due to their fossil origin. The research area is the sub-basins where Yeniköy-Kemerköy Thermal Power Plant established in Mugla and Afşin-Elbistan Thermal Power Plant in Kahramanmaraş provincial borders. The data produced in the study were processed with Arc-GIS 10.6.1 software and the land uses between 1990 and 2018 were analyzed. In addition, the landscape diversity in the study area was calculated and ranked according to Simpson, Shannon and Brillouin diversity indexes based on the number of units and area size in both areas, and the results indicated that the diversity levels were high. As a result, it was understood that landscape typology changed in both study areas, new land cover/land use classes were formed and these changes were directly related to the activity. The similarity rate of landscape typologies in two different study areas taken into consideration was determined as 30.6% in artificial areas, and 6.4% in agriculture and forest / semi-natural areas. It was concluded that both areas, which have completely different characters before the activity, were affected directly or indirectly from the effects of power plants and the original typology presented by the landscape was disturbed.