Abstract
Land Use in the Coastal Zones with Environmental Impacts on the Estuary and Beaches: Case Study of Tekkeönü River Basin and Hisar-Ovatekkeönü Beaches of Bartın, Turkey
Coastal zone river basins are significant landscapes not only from their aesthetic and recreational features but also from their land use characteristics and associated environmental impacts. In this study, the buffer zones were designated within the Tekkeönü river basin of Bartın, Turkey using the Geographical Information Systems (GIS). Thus, the land use and slope situations of the buffer zones and overall river basin were determined. According to the results of this study, the agricultural areas constitute approximately the 48% of the 0.5 km buffer zone. On the other hand, they cover 40% of the 1 km buffer zone. However, the agriculture and grazing are practiced at relatively the steep lands where the slope degree is more than 10°. The rural settlements are scattered at almost 22% and 16% of the 0.5 km and 1 km buffer zones respectively. In addition, the handicapped forests spread about 21% and 23% of these buffer zones respectively. About 12% of these handicapped forests exist on the relatively steep slopes (>10°) of the Tekkeönü river basin. The agricultural areas and handicapped forests are potential threats for the soil erosion and river pollution particularly at the steep slopes of the river basin. Therefore, conservative precautions should be taken in order to achieve sustainable management of the basin, estuary and beach.
Keywords
Coastal zone, Land use, GIS, Environmental impacts, River basin, Estuary and beach.
