Relationship between Population and Agricultural Land in Amasya

Abstract

Urban development endangers agricultural and natural areas. It causes the rural population to immigrate to urban areas due to appealing life standards and leads to the extinction of rural areas. In addition, reduced rural population causes urban areas to select rural areas as development areas. This problem of rural areas can be better described in the areas that have completed their urban development but still continue to develop. This article discusses the effect of population in determining the areas which see population increases and are under pressure. We addressed Amasya in our research. The population in the neighbourhoods of Amasya was determined. The distribution of rural areas in the city plans in the neighbourhoods was determined. Geographical information system was used for these analyses. Pearson’s product-moment correlation was used on agricultural and population data obtained from the neighbourhoods. The existence of a negative or positive interaction between population and agricultural areas was shown. This study described the problems of rural areas located in urban areas and indicated their status according to the population, using statistical analysis. Keywords: