Investigation of Topography and Some Land Features of Sivas Province with GIS

Abstract

This study is based on the examination of topography and some land features of Sivas province located in the Upper Kızılırmak Basin through Geographic Information Systems (GIS). In this study, which was carried out by document analysis method, one of the qualitative research designs, the data were obtained from the SRTM Worldwide Elevation Data source and the maps produced by the General Directorate of Mapping through the Global Mapper 21.1 package program. Land Use Capability (LUC) data of Sivas province were compiled from the data created by the General Directorate of Rural Services and land use data were compiled from CORINE 2018. Topography, land cover and land use maps of the province were created with MapInfo Pro Advanced 2019.3 GIS package program. A number of query operations were performed on these maps and the statistical data obtained were converted into tables and graphs with the help of Microsoft Excel 2016 application. According to the findings obtained at the end of all these processes, it was determined that 64% of the Sivas province area is located at an elevation value above 1500 m, 40.43% of it has slope values lower than 6%, and in terms of aspect characteristics, it is equally distributed in all directions except flat parts. A large part of the Sivas provincial land, 47.15%, consists of class VII lands and these areas are not suitable for agricultural activities.  The common soil types in Sivas province are brown soils with 39.17% and brown forest soils with 38.60%. 88.16% of the study area is faced with erosion problem. In terms of land use, approximately 28% of the provincial land consists of forest cover areas. As a result of all these findings, it has been determined that elevation, slope excess and erosion are the main problems seen in the provincial land and it is recommended that appropriate land use planning should be made by taking these problems into consideration.