**3. Measures and strategies at a national scale and its potential and actual effects on sustainability**

Successful land resource management requires action to be taken at the level of individuals, governments and even intergovernmental organizations. In this context, sustainability of the collaboration and interactions in the science-policy interface, improvement of the existing sources of information in terms of databases of land resources and the adaptation of the legal regulations under the sustainable land management approach are significant issues to reach the desired targets.

Other significant problems encountered in arid and semiarid regions in Turkey are drought, salinity and desertification due to lack of precipitation, high evapotranspiration rates and unsuitable land management practices [49]. Today, agricultural sector is one of the most important users of water resources in Turkey. Annually, we are economically using 44 billion cubic meters of 112 billion cubic meters of water resources, and 74% of this water is only being used for agricultural activities [50]. Excessive and unsuitable use of both surface and subsurface waters for agricultural purposes led to significant changes in the quantity and quality of water resources. In the world, 60 million hectares, which account for about 20% of the world's irrigated areas, are facing serious salinity problem. And, more than 50% of these areas are located in India, China, USA and Pakistan. Turkey is also affected by irrigation-derived salinity at considerable levels. Today, 1.5 million hectares of soils have salinity problem due to improper management of irrigation and inadequate drainage in Turkey [2]. As a result of unsustainable agricultural practices, a considerable amount of agricultural land is put out of production each year. This situation results in reducing agricultural productivity and limiting agricultural production areas [49]. Thus, it is estimated that increased salinization of arable land will led to a land loss of 50% in 2050 [51]. At the beginning of the causes that increase the activity of salinity in these regions is the drought. In Turkey, on average, a moderate drought every 6 years and a most severe drought every 18 years are observed. For this reason, World Meteorological Organization (WMO) listed Turkey among the 76 countries that have the risk

According to the drought predictions, the tendency of meteorological drought in our country to turn into agricultural drought is rather high [53]. This is in our country that uses 74% of total water for agricultural purposes; the fact that agricultural drought is one of the most important limiting factors for the agriculture sector in terms of having enough moisture in the soil during the plant development periods for agricultural production [50]. According to the 2020, 2050 and 2080 projections in Turkey, a decrease in production rates of the grains such as wheat, barley, rye and oat by 4.9, 8.3 and 13.8 per percent, respectively, due to climate change and drought is estimated [54]. Considering that 80% of the 24 million hectares of agricultural land is rainfed, it is clear that if necessary measures are not taken, agricultural production will be adversely affected in the future from the climate change processes. As a result, the sustainability of land resources in semiarid and arid ecosystems, such as Turkey that has high sensitivity to land degradation in terms of climate, soil and topographic conditions, is directly related to the effective implementation of sustainable land management practices. And, it can

be achieved on the condition that the science-policy interface is actively formed.

**3. Measures and strategies at a national scale and its potential and** 

Successful land resource management requires action to be taken at the level of individuals, governments and even intergovernmental organizations. In this context, sustainability of the collaboration and interactions in the science-policy interface, improvement of the existing sources of information in terms of databases of land resources and the adaptation of the legal

of drought [50, 52].

8 Arid Environments and Sustainability

**actual effects on sustainability**

Related to the subject, revised soil charter [55] defined the responsibilities under the three main groups, which are individuals and private organizations, government and intergovernmental organizations, to overcome degradation process and build restoration of degraded areas. The success of national scale works related to land resource sustainability is closely linked to the actions and strategies that governments will implement. For that, 10 significant actions to be realized by governments are defined [55]. Among them, the last three actions (VIII, IX and X) emphasize the need to develop the land and soil information systems to combat climate change and land degradation processes in terms of sustainability of land resources effectively.

To more effectively and sustainably combat desertification and erosion throughout Turkey, both national and international projects have to been seriously implemented. National Soil Erosion Map by USLE/RUSLE algorithm (Universal Soil Loss Equation – Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation) [56] is one of the most important attempts by General Directorate of Combating Desertification and Erosion bureau. In this context, constantly updated 'Erosion Monitoring System' is preparing for monitoring studies and creating data archive in the web [57]. It is aimed to gather available information throughout the country related to applied or planned soil conservation practices. It is supported with web-available system for applying different scenarios to estimate its effects on soil loss ratios [12]. Another important monitoring system is created for the problem of desertification. For that, a risk map has been established by determining the vulnerability classes of desertification-sensitive arid and semiarid lands of Turkey [57]. Studies at national scale are also being conducted in the same way to evaluate the risk of wind erosion and take effective precautions against to it.

In addition to this, considerable steps have been taken with the efforts to increase the presence of forests and the improvement of the existence of damaged forests. Over the last 37 years, total forest area has increased by 1.3 million hectares with afforestation projects. For future projections, it is aimed to increase the total forest area from 27 to 30% by 2023 by Ministry of Forestry and Water Affairs. Afforestation of degraded soils by converting into forests or other perennial land uses has a large potential of soil organic carbon sequestration. It will enhance the carbon accumulation in soil organic matter [32].

Other significant projects on management of limited land resources in Turkey are related to watershed managements, soil and water resource monitoring facilities, drought, desertification, snowslide, flood and landslide control and monitoring systems, rehabilitation of degraded areas in the context of Land Degradation Neutrality approach have been progressed by Ministry of Forestry and Water Affairs.

The Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock, which is also responsible for combating climate change in Turkey, has various projects, strategies and policies related to agriculture as follows [58–61]:

• *Land Consolidation Strategy* aims to increase the efficiency and reduce the energy usage by reaching the optimum size of the enterprises. In Turkey, 5.1 million hectares of land consolidation work have been completed, and it is continuing at 1.9 million hectares area by the end of 2015. Land consolidation studies for 14 million hectares of land are planned to be completed by 2023.

potatoes, onion and forage plants), will be supported on 941 agricultural areas and planned production will be passed. To define the supported product on a specific area, a decision support system has been established that includes more than 1 billion data taking into consideration long-term output statistics, the crop rotation, climate, soil and topography conditions, water restriction data (current water potential and vegetation water consumption), present legal regulations on soil conservation and public and academic proposals. Within the scope of this project, "fertilizer usage guidelines" was prepared for total 941 agricultural basins to prevent from being contaminated with excessive fertilization and increased productivity. And, 211 large plains have been identified and their boundaries have been determined in order to ensure effective protection of agricultural land. It is planned that these 211 large agricultural basins will be declared as a protected area by the decision of the Council of Ministers and protected effectively. New arrangements have been made in order to bring unused agricultural lands for various reasons (property issue, immigration, abandonment of farming, etc.) to agricultural production and the economy of the country. Irrigation and land consolidation projects will be applied in the scope of this project. Thus, it is aimed at increasing the production capacities of the soil by adaptation of modern production/irrigation techniques within

Strategies to Enhance Sustainability of Land Resources in Arid Regions

http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.72492

11

However, discussions about the legal, technical, socioeconomic and environmental dimensions of sustainable land and soil management in Turkey clearly showed that land-use planning for industrialization, urbanization, transportation and tourism, etc., with the contribution of the gaps in the legal regulations creates a serious pressure on our land resources, the soil functions are deteriorated and it causes the subsurface and above-ground ecosystem services to disappear. In particular, the concept of "public good" in the law on soil conservation and land use has been brought to lead to the use of an instrument for the conversion of

In addition, databases already used in land-use plans have lost their validity. There is an increasing demand for detailed soil surveys in Turkey by scientists and technicians working on projects of sustainable soil and water management. Soil classes should be updated. It was produced within the 1938 Soil taxonomy named as the old American classification system [62], and semidetailed maps made 30 years ago need to be updated nationwide at 1/25: 000 scale to meet today's needs. The information-based land-use planning period, which includes soil series and important phases, should be urgently passed. A more systematic case assessment on land resource sustainability in Turkey is shared below with the help of SWOT analysis.

Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities And Threats (SWOT) analysis is defined as the strategic planning method used to summarize the key elements of your strategic environments [63]. In fact, it is thought as the first step in the strategic planning and it helps planners to identify the strategies of achieving goals by concentrating on the key subjects [64]. The SWOT analysis matrix was explained by [65] as shown in **Table 1**. Where the questions are to be asked in the

**4. Situation analysis, SWOT: soil and water resources and** 

analysis to reach the planned targets are expressed clearly.

the soil and water resource conversation approach.

qualified agricultural lands to another uses.

**sustainability in Turkey**


And several agricultural Research & Development studies pursue to reduce the energy use in agriculture, sustainable resource use, development and improvement of drought-tolerant plants, improvement of methods and tools in irrigated areas in dry periods and development of land processing methods and tools providing carbon capture in the soil. The others related to some information technologies carried out in our country within the scope of action plans to be taken by governments are "land use land use conversion and forest (LULUCF)," "determination of the problematic agricultural areas," "agricultural monitoring and information system project (TARBİL)," "farming registration system" and "rural database project." All of these projects aim at the formation and development of reliable information systems related to soil and land-use strategies.

Recently, the significant project that stands out in crop/soil management is the "National Agriculture Project" that has been started by the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock in 2017. Its original aim is to promote sustainable agriculture by considering the existing ecological and economic conditions and the needs of Turkey. In this context, 21 products that are important in terms of human nutrition, health and animal production, which are strategically and locally important in our country (wheat, barley, rye, rice, Dane corn, triticale, oats, lentils, chickpeas, dry beans, cotton, soybean, oil sunflower, canola, Aspir, tea, hazelnut, olive oil, potatoes, onion and forage plants), will be supported on 941 agricultural areas and planned production will be passed. To define the supported product on a specific area, a decision support system has been established that includes more than 1 billion data taking into consideration long-term output statistics, the crop rotation, climate, soil and topography conditions, water restriction data (current water potential and vegetation water consumption), present legal regulations on soil conservation and public and academic proposals. Within the scope of this project, "fertilizer usage guidelines" was prepared for total 941 agricultural basins to prevent from being contaminated with excessive fertilization and increased productivity. And, 211 large plains have been identified and their boundaries have been determined in order to ensure effective protection of agricultural land. It is planned that these 211 large agricultural basins will be declared as a protected area by the decision of the Council of Ministers and protected effectively. New arrangements have been made in order to bring unused agricultural lands for various reasons (property issue, immigration, abandonment of farming, etc.) to agricultural production and the economy of the country. Irrigation and land consolidation projects will be applied in the scope of this project. Thus, it is aimed at increasing the production capacities of the soil by adaptation of modern production/irrigation techniques within the soil and water resource conversation approach.

consolidation work have been completed, and it is continuing at 1.9 million hectares area by the end of 2015. Land consolidation studies for 14 million hectares of land are planned

• *Organic Farming Activities* aim to increase soil fertility in natural terms in the long term considering ecological conditions, to prevent soil and genetic resource erosion, to protect water quantity and quality, to use renewable energy resources and to help save energy.

• *Good Agricultural Practices* aim to ensure that agricultural production is done for sustaining the environment, human and animal health, protection of natural resources, supplying the

• Environmentally Protected Agricultural Land Conservation Program (ÇATAK) aims to give support payments for farmers who prefer ecofriendly agricultural techniques and cultural practices. Grant support is provided for the conversion of in-field irrigation systems to closed and pressurized systems within the framework of the Program for Supporting Modern Irrigation Methods to Support Water Saving and the Support Program for Rural

• *Drought Management* supports Agricultural Drought Provincial Crisis Centers in 81 cities that were established and the provincial agricultural drought strategies and action plans for the years 2013–2017 were prepared and put into effect in order to reduce the expected

• *Agricultural Insurance Applications* are being done for floods, hurricanes, etc., which are increasing in number due to climate changes. They aim to compensate for the risks arising from meteorological disasters. Through the Risk Management strategy in agriculture, it is aimed to ensure the sustainability of production by ensuring the products of the producers

And several agricultural Research & Development studies pursue to reduce the energy use in agriculture, sustainable resource use, development and improvement of drought-tolerant plants, improvement of methods and tools in irrigated areas in dry periods and development of land processing methods and tools providing carbon capture in the soil. The others related to some information technologies carried out in our country within the scope of action plans to be taken by governments are "land use land use conversion and forest (LULUCF)," "determination of the problematic agricultural areas," "agricultural monitoring and information system project (TARBİL)," "farming registration system" and "rural database project." All of these projects aim at the formation and development of reliable information systems related

Recently, the significant project that stands out in crop/soil management is the "National Agriculture Project" that has been started by the Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Livestock in 2017. Its original aim is to promote sustainable agriculture by considering the existing ecological and economic conditions and the needs of Turkey. In this context, 21 products that are important in terms of human nutrition, health and animal production, which are strategically and locally important in our country (wheat, barley, rye, rice, Dane corn, triticale, oats, lentils, chickpeas, dry beans, cotton, soybean, oil sunflower, canola, Aspir, tea, hazelnut, olive oil,

to be completed by 2023.

10 Arid Environments and Sustainability

Development Investments.

exposed to such risks.

to soil and land-use strategies.

traceability and sustainability in the ecosystem.

drought more frequently due to climate change.

However, discussions about the legal, technical, socioeconomic and environmental dimensions of sustainable land and soil management in Turkey clearly showed that land-use planning for industrialization, urbanization, transportation and tourism, etc., with the contribution of the gaps in the legal regulations creates a serious pressure on our land resources, the soil functions are deteriorated and it causes the subsurface and above-ground ecosystem services to disappear. In particular, the concept of "public good" in the law on soil conservation and land use has been brought to lead to the use of an instrument for the conversion of qualified agricultural lands to another uses.

In addition, databases already used in land-use plans have lost their validity. There is an increasing demand for detailed soil surveys in Turkey by scientists and technicians working on projects of sustainable soil and water management. Soil classes should be updated. It was produced within the 1938 Soil taxonomy named as the old American classification system [62], and semidetailed maps made 30 years ago need to be updated nationwide at 1/25: 000 scale to meet today's needs. The information-based land-use planning period, which includes soil series and important phases, should be urgently passed. A more systematic case assessment on land resource sustainability in Turkey is shared below with the help of SWOT analysis.
