Evaluation of landscape character studies in integrated watershed management models; example of Bingol Çapakçur, Yeşilköy, Yamaç microcatchments

Global climate change, which has been surrounding the world in recent years, extreme weather conditions, and imminent risk of drought lead to the rapid disruption of natural resources. Access to freshwater is becoming more difficult every day, adding to the popularity of water management studies of today. Integrated basin models are the most widely used models in the holistic approaches to water management. These models jointly consider the socio-economic structure of the residents of watersheds and natural resource management, thus ranking among the most applied management models worldwide. Land use is the most important parameter in model construction as it directly affects both strategies for preservation and development and socio-economic factors. In this study, a model was constructed and management strategies were developed for three basins in Bingöl, Turkey. Instead of the CORINE land cover inventory, which has been usually used for this purpose, the landscape characteristics assessment was employed during the construction of the model, as we were of the opinion that it could yield more up-to-date and healthy data. Hence, the erosion sites, rocky areas, transportation networks, dry and active rivers, which are omitted in the CORINE land cover, were included in the study, thus allowing the development of more up-to-date strategies. The discrepancy of 45.45% between the CORINE land cover and current landscape areas is a testament to the foresightedness of our decision to use landscape characteristics. Soil and plant samples were collected from 193 locations and 12 different areas of use during the study. Moreover, water samples were collected from 12 of these locations to annually examine and seasonally determine the annual changes in water quality. The up-to-date vegetation preservation zones map, soil quality map, and water quality parameters were obtained using the results of the study. The use of these parameters during the development of the preservation and development strategies has added to the up-to-dateness of the study. The study is a pioneer for its inclusion of the risk maps of the basins (erosion, flood, and landslide) in the model. All data sets were prepared using topographic measurements in the RUSLE model that was used for erosion, allowing the generation of the most up-to-date soil loss map. The risk and sensitivity maps for the three basins were obtained with the study and the residents of the basins were included in the study in keeping with the SWOT analyses. The study was finalized in an integrated manner with the residents of the watersheds, yielding solutions for protection, preservation, and development.