Microzonation of Gölbaşı Special Environmental Protection Area with Respect to Geoenvironmental Criteria

Abstract

Natural environment is under the threat of dramatic degradation due to the development of technology and industrialization. Therefore, contemporary planners should consider the negative aspects of industrialization and urbanization on natural environment and should prepare related plans considering these aspects. Some natural resources in the capital of Turkey, Ankara, are also under the threat of industrialization and urbanization. With this respect, Gölbaşı, Mogan and Eymir Lake environment have legally considered as special environmental protection area since 1991. In this paper, the change of natural resources is examined by means of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) based remote sensing. The change is also examined with the previous and contemporary maps related with the years of 1992 and 2008. In this sense, microzonation map of the area is prepared by means of Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP). The result of this analysis indicates that the most important changes between the years of 1992 and 2008 occurred in the built-up areas. Accordingly, agricultural areas and open spaces also decreased in this period. On the other hand, areas related with industry and storage has been observed as increased in the related years. These results state that the natural environment, especially water resources, are under the threat of industrialization and urbanization although Mogan and Eymir Lakes environment has been set as special environmental protection area.