Search Database - Locality

From Bekleyen et al. (2011) [Ref.18494]:
The portion of the Tigris River flowing through southeastern Anatolia represents one of the largest rivers in Turkey, with a catchment area of approximately 57,614 km2 (Akbulut et al. 2009). The river originates in the Toros mountains of Turkey and follows a southeastern route in Turkey to Cizre, where it forms the border between Turkey and Syria for 32 km before entering Iraq. The total length of the river is approximately 1900 km, of which 523 km is within Turkey. The Batman, Garzan, Botan and Hezil rivers are its major tributaries in Turkey. Currently, there are two major dams under operation on the Tigris River in this country: the Kralkızı and the Dicle. The Kralkızı Dam is used for hydro-electric energy production, and the Dicle Dam is used for hydro-electric energy production, irrigation and supplying drinking water for the city of Diyarbakır.
Diyarbakır, Bismil, Hasankeyf and Cizre are the four major urban settlements on the banks of the river. The river serves as a major source of the domestic water supply of the city of Diyarbakır (population of approximately 851,000) as well as directly receiving the partially treated domestic wastewater from Diyarbakır; the untreated domestic wastewater from the Bismil, Hasankeyf and Cizre townships; and effluents from a several industries along its course.
The maximum flows in the river occur from February through April, whereas the minimum flows occur from August through October. The river discharge varies considerably at different locations, showing an increasing trend towards its downstream stretches due to inputs from its tributaries. In Diyarbakır (upstream region of the river), the highest mean monthly flow during the study period was 72 m3/sn, in February, 2008, whereas the lowest mean monthly flow was 7.72 m3/sn, in September, 2008. In Cizre (downstream region of the river), the highest mean monthly flow was 487 m3/sn, in April, 2008, whereas the lowest mean monthly flow was 79.2 m3/sn, in August, 2008. The annual mean flows of the river in Diyarbakır and Cizre were calculated to be 28.3 and 211.8 m3/sn, respectively (Anonymous 2009a).
The continental climate of the Tigris Basin is referred to as a subtropical plateau climate. The continental climate features of the basin are most similar to those of Mediterranean region. The summer season is hot and dry, and the winter season is not as cold as in the eastern Anatolia region (Anonymous 2007). The annual total rainfall during the study period exhibited a decreasing trend towards the downstream stretches of the river, whereas the air temperature showed an increasing trend towards the downstream region. The highest annual total rainfall value was recorded as 611.1 mm, in Maden (upstream region of the river), and the lowest annual total rainfall value was found to be 294.1 mm, in Cizre (downstream region of the river). The mean annual air temperature ranged between 14.6 ºC (Maden) and 21.8 ºC (Cizre) (Anonymous 2009b). The Tigris river has the highest water temperature of all of the eastern Anatolian rivers (Akbulut et al. 2009).
The locations of the selected sampling sites in the Tigris River are shown in Fig. 1. In the present study, a total of seven sites, specifically, Maden "Site–1", Hantepe "Site–2", Diyarbakır "Site–3", Bismil "Site–4", Batman "Site–5", Hasankeyf "Site–6" and Cizre "Site–7", were selected on the Tigris River as part of a river monitoring network, and two of these sites, Hantepe and Batman, are situated downstream of the Dicle and Batman dam reservoirs, respectively. The sampling sites were located from 371–860 m a.s.l. between lat. 37º19'–38º20' N and long. 39º41'–42º11' E.