Evaluation of sustainable land management depending on watershed characteristics: A case study of Mazmılı watershed

Sustainable land management (SLM) is the use of land resources while preserving their production potential. Determining watershed characteristics is an important component of SLM, especially in areas with significant potential for land use change. In this context, this study aims to determine some watershed characteristics of the Mazmılı watershed using geographic information systems and to evaluate the findings in the context of SLM. A watershed-based approach was adopted in the study. Watershed characteristics were considered as parameters such as form factor, bifurcation ratio, drainage texture, relief, elongation ratio, slope, aspect, elevation, bedrock, and land use. The basic data consists of the DEM, geology maps, forest management plan, and polygons related to land use created in Google Earth. The related formulas were used to determine some parameters while maps were produced for others. All maps were generated using the ArcGIS 10.3 program. Relief, form factor, bifurcation ratio, drainage texture, and elongation ratio were found as 1227, 0.30, 4, 0.12, and 0.62, respectively. The highest land assets are found at 600-900 m. In addition, all land use types are located together only at 600-900 m. Approximately 75% of the study area has a slope above 15%. Settlement areas are concentrated on sedimentary rocks covering 72% of the study area. Agricultural areas exist in all slope groups. In addition, there is much more agricultural land than forest land in all slope groups, except for the >30%. These results indicate that land uses should be optimized for SLM in the study area.