Mapping Landscape Potential for Supporting Green Infrastructure: The Case of a Watershed in Turkey

Green infrastructure (GI) is a strategic planning approach that can contribute to solutions for ecological, social, and environmental problems. GI also aims to conserve natural and semi-natural landscapes and enhance ecological networks. Within the scope of spatial planning, urban and rural landscape units can be integrated through GI planning. In this study, we propose a method to calculate the landscape potential and map GI in the lower Büyük Menderes River Basin, Turkey. We used landscape character assessment (LCA) to identify the landscape typology, which was one of the key steps for determining the landscape potential. Three thematic maps were produced and overlaid in ArcMap 10.7. A map showing the spatial distributions of 71 landscape types was created by means of LCA. Then, the landscape types were assessed according to defined criteria, and finally, GI of the study area was mapped. This study found that high-quality landscape types were located in the middle, northern, and eastern parts of the lower Büyük Menderes River Basin, rather than in the protected areas. Moreover, 68 of the 71 landscape types were present in the GI map. The findings show the necessity of including the landscape potential concept in conservation strategies. Thus, this paper provides a reference guideline for mapping GI as a contributor to nature conservation and spatial planning strategies.

Aphanius irregularis, a new killifish from south-western Anatolia (Cyprinodontiformes: Aphaniidae)

Aphanius irregularis, new species, is described from the spring Kaklık in the Büyük Menderes River drainage in south-western Anatolia. Males of A. irregularis are distinguished from males of other species of the A. anatoliae group by having irregularly set and shaped dark-brown flank-bars often fused to each other, forming rows of vertically elongated silvery blotches and many small silvery spots or fields of small vermiculation, disconnected from silvery bar interspaces on flank. Males of A. irregularis are distinguished from males of some other species of the A. anatoliae group by having a wide, dusty grey or black anal-fin margin, often interrupted in small individuals; a narrow, white stripe or a series of white spots on the black dorsal-fin base; and often some white blotches in the middle of the dorsal fin. Females of A. irregularis are distinguished by having a vermiculate brown colour pattern, usually with a mid-lateral series of short stripes. The available molecular genetic data suggest that A. irregularis is closely related to A. maeandricus, which occurs in other springs in the Büyük Menderes River drainage. Geological data suggest that both spring complexes have not been connected until they were caught by the Büyük Menderes River in the Late Quaternary, no more than 0.8 million years ago.