Aim of study: This study is done to monitor temporal land use/land cover changes in a typical mountain watershed covering an area of 135441.0 ha in North Eastern of Turkey based on rural demographic dynamics and forest management plans belonging to the years 1987 and 2013 coupled by GIS analyses. It also investigates changes in the shape of land use class (LUC) over the period.Material and Methods: The changes occurring time wise and positional on the base of the local LUC was examined by benefiting from the forest management plans from 1987 to 2013. Moreover, the change of LUC around these areas has been examined with the 1000 m zones thrown around the settlement areas and correlated with the fast decrease of the population recent years. Demographic dynamics (increase or decrease) affect the usage of forest lands, as well.Main results: While there was an increase in the productive forest lands (pure coniferous and deciduous, and mixed forest) between 1987 and 2013. In the same periods there was a decrease in agricultural and sandy areas. The increase of patches in the productive forest lands mostly resulted from afforestation works conducted in the unproductive forest lands, and forestry maintenance activities. Another reason for this increase of forest patches is why people have immigrated to urban areas in the last years.Research Highlights: It can be said that one of the most important causes in the rise of the forest resources in the Alucra Forest Planning Units (FPU) is the time wise changes of social structure. Furthermore, the forestry activities in the study between 1987 and 2013 are also the other significant factor in this increase of forest resources.

Snow-covered land surfaces can be easily mapped using remote sensing technologies. Accurate estimation of snow cover on the land surface allows for the construction of water resource management today. Using Landsat TM/ETM + satellite images, this study tried to assess how much snowfall covered the soil in Trabzon, Gümüşhane, and Bayburt provinces between 1999 and 2023. Satellite images were classified into three categories using the ERDAS 9.1 TM software. These classes are classified as snow-covered surfaces, other places, and data loss (cloud-shadow). When performing image analysis, it was important to verify that the cloudiness rate in the images was less than 15%. Images with cloudiness rates of more than 15% were not used. Seasonal and annual trend analysis of snow-covered areas (SCA) over three distinct regions (Trabzon, Gümüşhane, and Bayburt) were examined using the Mann-Kendall test. When three distinct study regions were examined together, Bayburt had the highest SCA rate, followed by Gümüşhane and Trabzon. In all three fields, the highest SCA was recorded in 2000, while the lowest SCA was recorded in 2017. The trends noticed that SCA on both annual and seasonal scales did not reach the statistical significance level of 0.05. Although snowfall in Trabzon, Gümüşhane, and Bayburt was beneficial in the autumn and spring seasons, no statistically significant association was found. The research concluded that the existing data are inadequate to make any statements on the impact of global warming in the area. However, the study figured out that satellite data may be effectively used to identify snowy places as a result of the study. Comparable investigations need to be undertaken in regions with varying climates, utilizing diverse remote sensing data and classification methodologies.

Orman ekosistem hizmetleri; tedarik, düzenleyici, destekleyici ve kültürel hizmetleri bünyesinde barındırmaktadır. İnsanlar ve canlıların ekosistemden doğrudan veya dolaylı olarak elde ettiği faydalar çok çeşitlidir. Ekosistemin sunduğu düzenleyici hizmetler sürdürülebilir kalkınma ve insan yaşamı açısından önem arz etmektedir. Aynı zamanda ekosistem hizmetleri insan refahı ile yakından ilişkilidir. Yaşamın en temel taşlarından birisi de su kaynaklarıdır. Dünya yüzeyinde kullanılabilir suyun çok az olması ve su kaynaklarının insanlara sunduğu hizmetlerin artması bu önemi daha da artırmıştır. Su döngüsünün faydalı bir biçimde kullanılması için evapotranspirasyon süreçlerinin de belirlenmesine ihtiyaç duyulmuştur. Faydalı suyun depolanmasında barajlar inşa edilmektedir. Baraj havzaları içerisinde mevcut arazi örtüsünün korunması ya da geliştirilmesi gerekmektedir. Bu çalışmada, bazı ülkelerdeki içme suyu havzalarındaki ormancılık çalışmaları ile ekosistem hizmetleri arasındaki ilişkiler ele alınarak Trabzon ilinin içme suyu ihtiyacının yaklaşık %70’ini sağlayan Galyan (Atasu Baraj) havzasındaki orman ekosisteminin sürekliliği açısından değerlendirmelerde bulunulmuştur. Orman ekosistemi ile su üretiminin karşılıklı etkileşimlerine değinilmiştir.

Ecotourism is a type of activity in which people spend time in natural environments having fun and admiring nature's wonders. One of the most important characteristics of natural beauty is its potential to foster social and cultural calm. The Covid 19 pandemic outbreak began in Turkey in March 2020. The purpose of this research was to find out how many individuals visited Giresun's ecotourism destinations between 2018 and 2021. The number of tourists to the area had decreased, particularly in 2020. Visitors to Giresun Province are registered at the city's entrance by the Provincial Directorate of Tourism. The existence of tourism agencies facilitates the identification of both domestic and foreign tourists. In 2018 there were 182313 tourists; in 2020 there would be only 105064. There were 77249 fewer tourists in just two years. Despite pandemic restrictions, local tourists prefer ecological places because they provide clean air and a nice way of life. Domestic visitors to the remote Giresun province stayed in ecotourism zones. Despite the fact that our region has several ecotourism destinations, it is obvious that many visitors are leaving for adjacent provinces owing to a lack of infrastructure, transit alternatives, and lodging options.