Fred Ernst

This study was conducted using Geographic Information Systems (GISs), Remote Sensing (RS) techniques, and the SLEUTH model based on Cellular Automata (CA) to analyze the spatial and temporal dynamics of urban growth in Sanliurfa Province and to create future projections. The model in question simulates urban sprawl by using Slope, Land Use/Land Cover (LULC), Excluded Areas, urban areas, transportation, and hill shade layers as inputs. In addition, disaster risk areas and public policies that will affect the urbanization of the city were used as input layers. In the study, the spatial pattern of urbanization in Sanliurfa was determined by using Landsat satellite images of six different periods covering the years 1985–2025. The Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method was applied within the scope of Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA). Weighting was made for each parameter. Spatial analysis was performed by combining these values with data in raster format. The results show that the SLEUTH model successfully reflects past growth trends when calibrated at different spatial resolutions and can provide reliable predictions for the future. Thus, the proposed model can be used as an effective decision support tool in the evaluation of alternative urbanization scenarios in urban planning. The findings contribute to the sustainability of land management policies.

Urban and regional planning in developing and developed countries faces many challenges, among them lacking support of stakeholders. Geodesign is a new approach in the framework of Public Participatory Geographic Information Systems addressing this problem. While Geodesign works have been carried out throughout the world they were separated from economic analysis. In this project, two different development scenarios for Harran District located in Southeast Turkey were elaborated using Geodesign methodology. Due to the importance of this region for agricultural production and its potential for tourism, the focus of this work lies on these sectors. The included financial analysis revealed the huge benefits of a scenario adopting early environmentally friendly technologies. The Net Present Value could be eight times higher if a conversion to orchards on some lands were realized. To streamline the computation of financial benefits on a strategic level an extension to the used GeodesignHub software was developed.

Water scarcity is a prominent consequence of global climate change, presenting a significant challenge to the livelihoods of wide parts of the world, particularly in arid and semi-arid regions. This study focuses on Erbil Province in Iraq, where the dual effects of climate change and human activity have significantly depleted water resources in the past two decades. To address this challenge, rainwater harvesting (RWH) is explored as a viable solution. The purpose of this study is to make a suitability zone map that divides the study area into several classes based on the features of each area and its ability to collect rainwater. The map will then be used to find the best place to build different RWH structures. Seven different layers are used to make the RWH suitability zone map: rainfall, runoff, land use/cover (LU/LC), soil texture, slope, drainage density, and the Topographic Wetness Index (TWI). Each layer was assigned specific weights through the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP), considering its relevance to RWH. Results revealed four suitability classes: very highly suitable 1583.25 km² (10.67%), highly suitable 4968.55 km² (33.49%), moderately suitable 5295.65 km² (35.69%), and lowly suitable 2989.66 km² (20.15%). Notably, the suitability map highlights the northern and central regions as particularly suitable for RWH. Furthermore, the study suggested three suitable locations for constructing medium dams, six for check dams, and twenty-seven for farm ponds, according to the requirements of each type. These findings provide valuable insights for the strategic planning and effective management of water resources in the study area, offering potential solutions to the pressing challenges of water scarcity.

The objective of this project that is described in this paper was to introduce the little-known Harran School of the medieval Islamic period located in Southeast Türkiye to a broader audience using virtual reality technologies. 3D models of the medieval Inner Castle in the Harran archaeological site and one of its saloons were created using photogrammetric methods. In this main saloon, 3D models of artifacts found during excavation works on this site that were used in medieval and earlies times were placed in a museum-like style. Additional objects, illumination and paintings of great Islamic scholars were appended to create a more realistic setting in the saloon. All these 3D models were transferred to the game engine Unity to generate a virtual environment, in which the visitor can immerse. Currently, this virtual museum can be experienced by PC-based head-mounted devices. While different implementations of virtual museums are already available in Türkiye with this project, a museum deploying virtual reality technology has been realized for the first time.

The surrounding agricultural lands in the city have been decreasing daily due to the expansion of urbanisation above it and the increase in the urbanisation rate in the study area, as the population growth exerted increasing pressures on the city. Furthermore, the increase in population increases the demand for land for housing and other human services, which will impact agricultural lands. In addition, the lack of proper planning in the city contributes to expanding urbanisation at the expense of agricultural land. This study aims to study the urban expansion in the direction of agricultural lands in Erbil from the year 2000 until 2020, reveal the reasons for the urban expansion in the city and put an end to the trespassers on the lands and it has negative impact on the lack of agricultural areas and the encroachment of urbanisation on it. Landsat TM 5 and Landsat 8 OLI will be used to identify and develop urban growth and its impacts on agriculture and some Remote sensing Data and GIS from 2000 to 2020 with 10 years difference to find the changes in these years and also provide a predicted map for Erbil governorate. The study recommended the necessity of preparing a strategic plan for the use of agricultural lands that regulates the urban development process of the population centres and achieves the appropriate and sustainable use of agricultural lands and their preservation. Encouraging the investment of lands and cultivation of crops to meet the population's need for vegetables and other crops. The findings of this study will help decision-makers develop future urbanisation policies, and it is worthwhile to investigate them further. The prediction model will demonstrate whether built-up areas will continue to grow or not and whether the average agricultural areas will continue to shrink based on regression analysis. Planning effective urban environmental management can benefit from this type of forecast of the LULC picture in the future.

Sürdürülebilir ekosistemin sağlıklı bir şekilde işlemesinin önündeki engellerin başında kuraklık ve dolayısıyla susuzluk yer almaktadır. Su kaynakları ve su rezervlerinde zaman içinde meydana gelen değişimlerin incelenmesinin, söz konusu problemlerin çözümüne katkı sunacağı düşünülmektedir. Hidroloji analizlerinin uzaktan algılama ve coğrafi bilgi sistemi entegrasyonu ile yapılması hem maliyet hem de zaman açısından büyük fayda sağlamaktadır. Bu çerçevede çalışmada Zernek Baraj Gölü’ne (Van) ilişkin 2000-2021 yılları arasında gerçekleşen hacimsel ve alansal değişimler incelenmiştir. Landsat uydu sistemlerine bağlı uydu verileri ve meteoroloji gözlem istasyonlarına ait veriler ışığında Normalize Edilmiş Fark Su Endeksi (NDWI) ve Radial Basis Function metotları kullanılarak analiz yapılmıştır. Elde edilen bulgulara göre 2021 yılında baraj su yüzey alanındaki 239.4002 hektarlık değerin son yirmi yılda görülen en düşük seviyedeki su yüzey alanı olduğu tespit edilmiştir. Hacimsel değişim de su yüzey alanı değişiminde olduğu gibi 2020- 2021 yılları arasında 19.48 hm3’lük azalma ile son yirmi yıldaki meydana gelen en büyük azalmayı göstermektedir. Yapılan istatistiksel analizler sonucunda baraja ait su yüzey alanının minimum sıcaklıktan -0.427’lik bir korelasyon katsayısı ile orta düzeyde etkilendiği tespit edilmiştir. Aynı değişkenin maksimum yağıştan ise 0.505’lik bir korelasyon katsayısı ile orta düzeyde etkilendiği belirlenmiştir. Bu çalışmadan elde edilen bulgulara göre su rezervlerinde meydana gelen değişimler analiz edilirken uzaktan algılama ve coğrafi bilgi sistemi teknolojilerinin kullanımının zaman ve maliyet açısından büyük fayda ve kolaylıklar sağladığı görülmektedir. Bu teknolojiler kullanılarak rezerv alanlarında meydana gelen değişim analizlerinin yapılması ile kaynaklara ilişkin yönetim politikalarının önemi ortaya çıkmaktadır. Dolayısıyla su kaynaklarının korunmasına yönelik politikaların uygulanmasının, gelecek kuşaklara daha sürdürülebilir bir yaşam alanı bırakılmasını olanaklı kılacağı düşünülmektedir.

City planning as all kind of planning is about something unreal requiring much imagination capabilities by those involved in this process. Therefore, the traditional means to show the results of planning consisting mainly of lengthy reports and 2D maps are insufficient. Although research in the field of GIS based planning has dealt with a big number of visualization tools including glyph maps, heat map and traditional 2D graphics, research on the opportunities of Virtual Reality (VR) for simulating potential future states of our cities is missing. Such simulations would include exhibit the results of “what-if” scenarios to stakeholders like decision-makers and the general public.The purpose of this research was to develop a largely automated workflow from a 2D map of a city block to a 3D model and finally to a VR environment that can be used without expert knowledge. This will bring urban planning to a new level by visualization of big development projects on the spot. The development of this workflow has been explained in detail. Deficiencies in the current approach are discussed and directions for future research are given.

Recently, a new interest in the social science community in location and a new "spatial social science" that crosses the traditional boundaries between disciplines have emerged. In this context, we will examine the usage of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in the analysis of human resource management in the public sector. For this research, personnel and operational data of 957 Land Registry Offices in all districts of Turkey were used. These operational data were examined using different clustering techniques. By using tools of Geographic Information Systems to analyze public services, the distribution and condition of services can be understood much better. This study shows the first step to improve them and to allow for making better-informed decisions on where, when and what kind of resources to allocate in the human resource management in the public sector.

Turkey is a rich country in historical monuments. In the district of Harran, Şanlıurfa province, the work was done, an ancient city and many other ruins beside the world's first university can be found. Considering the climate and sensitive structure of the studied region 3D modeling is a suitable technique. By means of such works reconstruction, that can show us the former state of the region will be enabled at a later point of time. In case the historical site would be destroyed in any way, it will be useful for recording the work as a visual and digital resource. Then, when the work has to be restored, the data can be used as a base and realistic restoration projects could be carried out.