Perceptions of coastline changes in river deltas: southeast Mediterranean coast of Turkey

This paper describes a methodology that relies upon digital processing of remotely sensed satellite images to detect coastline changes in Cukurova Deltas, south east Mediterranean coast of Turkey. Two winter images of Landsat MSS and ETM+, acquired in 1972 and 2002, were clustered into "water" and "non-water" classes using the ISODATA algorithm prior to pixel-based comparison of land and water areas in two dates. The results of the study showed that significant changes occurred especially around river mouths, in the form of accretion and erosion. More than half of the total erosion along the sea coast, 153 of 347 ha, was detected to have occurred at the mouth of river Seyhan. The amount of accretion in Ceyhan delta was calculated as 203 ha. Importance of landscape-level characterization and monitoring that provide a basis for more detailed research and finer change detection was also highlighted.