Page 204 - Çevre Şehir ve İklim Dergisi İngilizce - Özel Sayı

Use of Climate-Resilient Plants in Arid and Semi-Arid Lands

season (Atalay, 2002). The majority of the areas where the General Directorate of
Combating Desertification and Erosion (ÇEMGM) carries out planting activities
are extremely arid and barren lands. Plant adaptation and implementation studies
conducted in regions such as Ankara, Aksaray, Konya, Karaman, and Kırşehir, where
drought is a serious problem, continue without irrigation in areas with limited
or no irrigation facilities. In these areas, plants that experience water deficiency
during the vegetation season undergo significant water stress. According to the
last 60 years of data from meteorological stations between Eskişehir and Aksaray,
water deficiency is observed in the region from May to October, showing a similar
trend throughout this period. The Konya Basin, which is very arid and threatened
by desertification due to wind erosion, receives approximately 300 mm of total
annual precipitation and has an average temperature of 11°C (Yıldız et al., 2018).
According to the Thornthwaite Water Balance, when comparing the Average
Monthly Total Precipitation (mm) with the Monthly Potential Evapotranspiration
(PET) (mm) for the Konya region, it is evident that the soil in this area experiences
water deficiency throughout the growing season of plants (Figure 9).

Figure 9: Thornthwaite water deficit balance; Konya and its surroundings
(Yıldız et al., 2018).
According to the Thornthwaite method, a water balance table for a location
is prepared using the monthly average temperature, monthly average
precipitation, and monthly evapotranspiration values for that location. Tables
of the water balance, obtained by using these values, show the accumulated
water in the soil throughout the year, the monthly variations of accumulated
water, the annual actual evapotranspiration amounts, the water surplus in the
soil, the water deficit, runoff, and the moisture content.

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Special Issue / 2024