WATERSHED MANAGEMENT BASED ON ECOLOGICAL RISK CHARACTERIZATION IN BAKIRCAY WATERSHED

The watershed management process requires a management approach that considers the basic principles of ecology, socio-cultural and natural systems, and also considers ecological risk elements in the watershed area. Ecological risk assessment in watershed management is a necessary process to collect, organize and present the scientific knowledge needed for environmental management decisions. In this context, the aim of this study is to establish a model for the data-information transformation process, needed in watershed management, by characterization of natural and human risk elements in Bakircay Watershed scale. Population change, meteorological drought, land cover and land-use change, wildfire potential and erosion have been evaluated as having potential to create ecological risk in the Bakircay Watershed. Spatial scale is determined as 30x30 meters and temporal scale is determined to be 1985-2013 in this study. The evaluation of ecological risk has been determined by multi-criteria analysis, analytic hierarchy process and character analysis approaches. The results show that the highest pressure on the ecological elements in the watershed is around the cities of Soma and Bergama because of the mining activities and population. It is thought that the applied model outputs can be questioned, developed and shaped towards the needs of the stakeholders.