An Assessment of Burdur Lake Ramsar Site (Türkiye)

Abstract

Burdur Lake and its surroundings, one of the 14 Ramsar sites in Türkiye, need urgent protection measures and rehabilitation. This study covers the field observations we have made on the area since 2013. The article was prepared to draw attention to Burdur Lake, which has been drying up in recent years, and to create environmental awareness among the local people. Flora and fauna are rich in its terrestrial ecosystem. Due to these important features, Burdur Lake was included in the Ramsar sites with 25,096.00 ha on 13.07.1994. In recent years, around 25 agricultural dams have been built on the streams feeding this lake, completely ending the natural water input. The construction of these dams was after the 2010s. In 2012, the natural feeding of the lake completely stopped. With the dams built, the lake's water resources spread over a wide area, evaporation, absorption and the precipitation gradually decreased, and the lake is in danger of drying up. There is no other source of nutrition for the lake other than the waste and polluted water of the Organized Industrial Zone and Burdur city center, which are shown as purified. Recently, Burdur province has become famous for its marble and stone quarries and the unrehabilitated quarries have become a threat to the diversity and life of living beings. In addition to deterioration of topography around Yarışlı Lake, which is located in close proximity to Lake Burdur, the physical and chemical properties of the water have changed a lot due to the marble quarries. When satellite images are examined; it is seen as a wrong opinion that the major earthquakes that occurred in Burdur province (magnitude 9 in 1914; magnitude 7 in 1963 and magnitude 8 on May 12, 1971) were effective in the loss of water in the lake. The drying up of Lake Burdur will not only cause a natural lake loss, but will also cause significant problems in underground waters and other water resources. It is recommended that the institutions responsible for its management be gathered under the presidency of a single executive institution and that cooperation with scientific circles be established.