Investigation of Ispir-Yedigöller and Its Close Proximity for Protected Area Criterias

For more than a century, several countries have established conservation areas with various conservation statues to protect their natural beauties and biological richness. In the present study, it was aimed to grade nature conservation features and determine Nature Conservation Areas using differently formatted and contented information of İspir-Yedigöller and its close proximity via Geographical Information System (GIS) as the consequence of the study. Potential regions for each criteria have been defined and combined in the GIS software to have a na-ture conservation map of the region. According to the results of investigation, the study area of 210330.25 ha was classified to protection zones established in terms of the nature conservation criterias. According to this, 4.68 % (9859.56 ha) and 59.15 % (124426.87 ha) of the study area is defined as core zone and buffer zone, respectively. The region of Yedigöller, including seven large circus lakes at a height ranging from 2900 to 3040 m has a lake ecosystem with a unique natural geographical structure, plant cover, wild life properties, scenic beauty and recreational potential. Therefore, it was determined that 6.26 % (13175.71ha) of the study area should be included in the conservation area with a statue of Nature Park, which is defined in the scope of the law related to National Parks. Also an inventory and data base were formed for future studies.