Temporal Analysis of Ramsar Sites via Remote Sensing Techniques - A Case Study of Meke Maar

Wetlands have globally significant social, economic and environmental benefits. Ramsar supports the conservation and conscious use of wetlands. Meke Maar is one of the Ramsar sites which located in Konya Closed Basin. Aim of the study is analysis of Meke Maar from 1984 to 2017, along with the reasons for the change. Remote sensing techniques were used for change detection from 1984 to 2017. Remote sensing has widely used in environmental analysis and change detection. Change analysis was conducted for 2 different month interval as spring (May-June) and autumn (August-September). For detecting water surface area, Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) and Classification and Regression Tree (CART) methods were used. These methods were implemented in the Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform. Obtained results evaluate with meteorological data and groundwater level measurements. Gulfet Yayla well is the nearest well to study area. That is why, its observations were used in evaluation of change detection results. In conclusion, water surface area in the Meke Maar has decreased approximately 90%. As a result of the study, it was determined that the factors affecting the water change in Meke Maar were precipitation and groundwater level.