Investigation of lagoon lakes in Kocacay delta by using remote sensing method

Coasts are areas that are under the influence of the interaction of the air, water and land and attract attention with the abundance of their natural resources and therefore are subjected to excessive usage. This excessive usage may disturb the sensitive balance of the coast ecosystem. In this study, the changes in Arapçiftligi, Poyraz, Dalyan lakes area found in Kocacay delta located in the south coast of Marmara sea was evaluated between the periods of 2000 to 2007 with remote sensing method. These lakes, located on the shores, have a very sensitive naturally dynamic balance and very importance in terms of natural surroundings and the coastal zones management plan. It must be known the change of the lakes mentioned above area according to years. Research and applications have demonstrated the advantages of remote sensing and geographic information system techiques on river,delta, lake, lagoon lake, sensitivite areas in a lakeshore, coastal erosion etc. monitoring and management. In the study, we benefited from Erdas and Intergraph-Geomedia 6.1 image processing and GIS, and also from AutoCAD 2007 and NetCAD 4.0 computer-aided design (CAD) software. For 2000, 2001, 2005 and 2007 years (4 number) Landsat-5 TM satellite images belonging to the region were used. As a result of the study, Arapçiftligi, Dalyan and Poyraz lake areas, number of islets that are seen in the lakes were given in respect to years. Arapçiftligi lake shrank 29.5% in size in the years 2000 and 2007. The fact that the lake continued to get smaller in size even in periods of high precipitation may be due to the sediment flowing from the agricultural fields established close to the lake area. Dalyan and Poyraz lakes lost 60% in terms of their surface area in the years 2000 and 2007. In 2000-2001 periods, Dalyan and Poyraz lakes increased in size by 3.2%. The reason for this could be the excessive precipitation and the fact that the seawater from Marmara sea seeps into the lake. Protection of the natural balance of the lagoons can be possible by using a monitoring programme to be set in connection with a healthy, systematic and manageable data system.