This study aims to develop a method to investigate the relationship between settlement
locations and the morphological landforms using geographical information systems (GIS).
The method is applied to Ç / ankiri province, a mountainous terrain, which is covered in
seventy-seven sheets of topographic maps at 1:25.000 scale.
Three databases are created and used in this study: 1) Settlement database comprising
various topographic and landform attributes of 891 settlements, 2) Morphological landform
database composed of 4042 landform polygon elements digitized from 1:25.000 topographic
maps, and 3) Topographic database containing the digital elevation model of the area and
its derivatives.
The first step in the algorithm is to classify the area into four main landform classes, namely,
valley, slope, flood and top. Unsuitable landforms are then clipped out based on the
thresholds derived from three topographic properties (elevation, slope and aspect).
Accordingly, about 2 % of the settlements and 12 % of the area are removed. The
relationship is investigated using the percentages of remaining settlements and landform
classes. Further analyses such as position of the settlement within the landform polygon and
type of the nearest landforms are carried out for final interpretation.
Following conclusions are reached on the relationship between settlement location and
morphological landforms:
- Percentages of settlements for flood, valley, slope and top are 8.37, 27.52, 58.60
and 5.50, respectively. Considering the percentages of the landforms provided in the
area, however, valley is the most preferred landform followed by flood type. Slope
and top landforms are less preferred. About 86 % of the settlements are
concentrated along valley-slope boundary.
- Morphological boundaries of flood and top landforms are consistent with the
settlement zones. The valley-slope boundary, on the other hand, which is the most populated area, cross-cut the settlements zones.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:METU/oai:etd.lib.metu.edu.tr:http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/1079292/index.pdf |
| Date | 01 July 2003 |
| Creators | Surmeli, Biricik Gozde |
| Contributors | Toprak, Vedat |
| Publisher | METU |
| Source Sets | Middle East Technical Univ. |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | M.S. Thesis |
| Format | text/pdf |
| Rights | To liberate the content for public access |
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