Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Environmental Earth Sciences, cilt.84, sa.15, 2025 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
Prioritizing basins according to their morphometry parameters is crucial for elucidating the soil erosion process. Before developing a watershed management plan, it is crucial to comprehend the morphometry of the basin. The research aims to evaluate the erosion risk in the basin using the ICONA (Institute for the COnservation of the Nature) erosion risk classification to help decision-makers prioritize basins by determining which sub-watersheds should be the focus of soil and water protection activities in accordance with the Weighted Sum Analysis (WSA) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) methods. This study was conducted in the internationally important Salda Lake Basin located in the Mediterranean region of Türkiye. The basin is divided into 23 sub-watersheds. In this context, only 12 parameters, (Rb, Lsm, Rl, Lo, Ff, Re, Rc, Dd, Cc, R, Rr, Rn) with strong or good correlations were used in the PCA approach. These parameters were also used in the WSA method. According to the PCA method, SWs (16-18-20) are the most prioritized sub-watersheds with compound parameter values of 7.08, 7.83, and 9.83, respectively, whereas according to the WSA method, SW (16-18-19) are the highest priority sub-watersheds with compound parameter values of 5.25, 7.14, and 8.43, respectively. Prioritization ranks of 8 sub-watersheds: namely, SWs (1-4-6-7-9-16-18-22) are common in PCA-WSA. Moreover, the results are very similar, except in the common sub-watersheds. According to the ICONA categorization system for erosion risk, 82.37% of the Salda Lake Basin falls within the very low and low group. It was discovered that the high and very high categories accounted for 12.12%. Since traditional watershed prioritization methods are both costly and time-consuming, methods such as PCA and WSA are recommended. The combined use of PCA and WSA methods is considered useful for developing long-term strategies for the prevention of soil erosion as well as catchment protection priorities. The ICONA erosion risk classification is consistent with the PCA and WSA catchment prioritization. Owing to such basin prioritization studies, decision-makers can prevent erosion, and flood disasters and minimize damage on a sub-watershed basis by managing basins and taking necessary measures.