Abstract
Sultan Marshes is one of Turkey's Ramsar wetlands and has faced significant threats in recent years. Although the water was brought from other basins for restoration, observed temporal human-induced impacts and the current drought have damaged the wetland qualities of the Marshes. In this study, the temporal change of the Marshes and the human-induced effects are analyzed. Spatiotemporal surface water area (1984-2020) and whole land use changes (1990-2018) are evaluated with the temporal change of the Human Development, Global Terrestrial Human Footprint, and Ecological Footprint Indexes. The land use changes since 1990 reveal how the wetland has lost its functions. Especially between 1990-2000, the water area largely shifted into the sandy and swampy areas. In the swampy areas between 1990-2000, natural pasture formation was also observed in 2000. In addition, it is found that mining fields were constructed in the region between 1990-2000, albeit relatively small. According to the study, the most remarkable change occurred in the 1990-2000 period, considering the entire study timeline (1990-2018). In this period, there was also a transformation into irrigated agricultural lands around the national park. Moreover, there was a transformation from orchards and pasture areas to irrigated agricultural areas. When the changes in the wetland are evaluated with the human footprint data for 1993 and 2009, it was found that human impact was more substantial, especially in 1993 compared to 2009. This is in line with the continuous increase in HDI values between 1990 (0.54) and 2018 (0.81). Besides, the ecological footprint has increased since 1983. After 1983, the biocapacity in the region has steadily decreased to negative values.