Reasons of forest fires in Akseki, Gündoğmuş and Manavgat (Karpuz River Basin)- south of Antalya and precautions to be taken

Abstract

On the east of Antalya, in Manavgat ,which includes the Karpuz River basin, forest fires cause serious danger by climate and human effects specially in summer season every year and hundreds of hectares of land has burned. Main reasons of the fires in Manavgat, which exhibits the properties of the Mediterranean climate, are lightning, extreme temperatures and human effect. Although Akseki and Gündoğmuş, two counties of Antalya, are located in the South of Taurus Mountains, because they have an elevation over 1000 m and show continental climate, the number of forest fires caused by the climate are less than in Manavgat. In this study, we investigated the reasons of forest fires in Karpuz River Basin and dwelt on the precautions to be taken. Following field survey, we obtained the climate data of the stations in the study area from the Turkish State Meteorological Service and the fire data from Antalya 13. Regional Directorate of Forestry. Based on the data, we have used several programmes to analyse and to determine the climate classification. According to the analysis of the results, between 1985-2015, 773 fires occurred in Manavgat destroyed an area of 4514,366 ha and an area of 461,373 ha in Akseki was destroyed by 361 fires. Fires occurring in mostly deltas and coastal areas show that intentional fires reached significant levels.