A Quantitative and Qualitative Assessment of Turkey's Water Resources Potential

One of the most basic human needs is water, which is also needed to create all the nutrients required for nutrition. For this reason, water is the basic element of life. While the presence of underground mines and oil is an indicator of the wealth of a country, the existence of water resources is now considered a part of this group. A hundred years ago, the existing water availability in a country was a direct indicator of the water wealth of that country. However, as a result of the increase in industrialization and the rapid pollution of water resources, it has become a necessity to evaluate water not only in terms of quantity but also in terms of quality. Because the unit water value of a source is related to the number of different purposes that source can be used for, the more varied a water resource's application, the more valuable it is. Sometimes one unit of very clean water is more valuable than a hundred units of dirty water. For this reason, the value of a country's water resources should be evaluated not only in terms of quantity but also in terms of quality. In this study, the total surface water as rivers and lakes and groundwater of Turkey were examined in terms of quantity and quality on a basin basis, and assessments were made about the basin water potentials.