Relations between the land use and land capability classification in Küçük Menderes River Basin

The aim of this study was to analyze the relation between land use and land classes in Kucuk Menderes river basin in terms of sustainable utilization of natural resources. Landsat satellite images were used to determine the current land use, and remote sensing method was used for processing these images. Land capability classification reflects the natural environment potential of an area. The area occupied by agriculturally important lands depends on this classification. According to this, 34% were included in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd class lands, 3% in the 4th class land, 7% in the 6th class land, 53% in the 7th class land, and 3% in the 8th class land. The most important land covers in the basin were; forest (21%), dry farming (21%), irrigated farming (17%), maquisgarrigue (11%), exposed surface (8%), settlements (3%) and water surface (2%). There was an inconsistency between the land capability classes and their usage. While the area occupied by 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th class lands, which should be used as agricultural lands covered 37%, the area occupied by the agricultural lands already covered 38%. This situation seemed consistent in terms of ratio, however, the fact was that 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th class lands were used for settlement (6%) and meadow pasture (20%); while the 5th, 6th, 7th and 8th class lands were used for agriculture (32%) and settlements (3%). This leads to some negative consequences. The massive erosion (60%) on the basin affects the lands that were inclined and lacking vegetation-cover. Basin lands became useless as a result of land degradation and erosion. To prevent this, a land use pattern suitable for the natural environment potentials of the region (land capability classes) should be used.