SUSTAINABILITY AND RESILIENCE IN GOLLER YORESI (LAKES REGION)

Abstract

Lakes provide a wide variety of ecosystem services in human societies, including drinking water procurement, aquaculture, irrigation of farmland, recreation, energy production, wastewater treatment, flood and drought control. However, increasing temperatures due to climate change and anthropogenic activities causes a decrease in the ice cover in the lakes and an increase in surface water temperatures in winter. As a result of these changes, the surface area and water levels of the lakes are rapidly decreasing. At this point, accessing and procuring vital water is emerging as an increasing global problem. Many regions of the world are facing the threat of drought due to climate change. The climate projections made predict that high temperatures and drought will increase, especially in Southern Europe and the Mediterranean Basin. Turkey is located in Southeast Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean geography, which is a critical region in terms of global warming, and this situation threatens the existence of lakes in closed basins, which are therefore more affected by climate change than the seas and oceans. 20 of the 36 lakes located within the borders of Afyonkarahisar-Antalya-Burdur-Denizli-Isparta-Konya, known as the Göller Yöresi (Lakes Region), have completely dried up in the last 30 years. Serious decreases in the surface areas and water levels of 16 lakes can be observed due to drought. In this study; it is aimed to reveal the necessity of applications that increase resilience against the effects of anthropogenic climate change for the sustainability of lakes. In this redard; the analysis of the surface area changes of 16 lakes in the Göller Yöresi (Lakes Region) between 1990-2005-2020 was made with the support of CBS. The effect of anthropogenic climate change on the lake ecosystem in the Göller Yöresi, which is in danger of extinction, has been revealed and strategies for adaptation and resilience to climate change have been developed for the sustainability of the lakes.

Keywords: lake, climate change, GIS, resilience, Göller Yöresi (Lakes Region).