Agroecological land use potential of Amik Plain, Turkey

Abstract: Th e loss of agricultural land due to the development of other land uses has increasingly become an issue of local, regional, and national concern in Turkey. Th is study was aimed at evaluating land use potential and suitability of 174 land mapping units of 72,544 ha in Amik Plain (Hatay, Turkey) for 21 diff erent land use types. For this purpose, land suitability evaluation was carried out using soil and land data and a PC-compatible ILSEN soft ware package program developed by the SENOL land evaluation system. Our study showed that out of 39 potential groups, 26 combined land uses and land covers (LULC) occupied less than 1 % of the study area. Nearly 15.6 % (11,090 ha) of the study area was found suitable for all of the horticultural crops and related land cover. Th e land area suitable for the entire fi eld crops was estimated to cover 12.3 % (8727 ha) of the study area. Key words: Land evaluation, land use, agricultural land suitability class Amik ovasının tarımsal-ekolojik arazi kullanım potansiyeli Özet: Türkiye’de tarım alanlarının, diğer kullanımların gelişimi sonucu kaybedilmesi, yerel, bölgesel ve ulusal düzeyde büyüyen bir sorundur. Bu çalışma ile 72,544 ha alana sahip Amik ovasında (Hatay, Türkiye) yer alan 17