Sinkholes, that is chasms wide up to 50 meters and, in some cases, equally deep that suddenly open into the ground. It happens in the karst area of Konya Closed Basin: the last census counted almost them 700 appeared in just 50 hectares in the Southern Central Türkiye. A phenomenon – partly natural and partly anthropic, linked to climate crisis and to water exploitation – which made the landscape of that region unique and a little disturbing. And, of course, potentially dangerous.
La Sinkhole Sensitivity Map
To map the doline (this is the Italian name, sinkhole in English e sinkhole in Turkish) is theTurkish Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (Afad) with the help of Sinkhole Application Research Center at the Konya Technical University. One was made Sinkhole Sensitivity Map which has the precise purpose of predicting future collapses and mitigating risk. Current data shows that sinkholes are located in rural or agricultural areas and so far there do not appear to be any critical issues for homes. The first phase of the census was conducted between 2021 and 2023, and now the second has begun.
What are sinkholes
Sinkholes are a typical formation linked to karsta well-known phenomenon in Italy (the term derives from the area of Karstbetween Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Slovenia). In essence, it is the modeling of soluble limestone rocks caused mainly by rainwater, rich in carbon dioxide and therefore acidic. They can have different sizes and depths, as well as shapes (for example circular, funnel-shaped, or bowl-shaped). In Turkey, what worries Afad is above all thedrastic increase in frequency with which these enormous holes are formed in the ground. In the entire Konya region, less than a hundred had been recorded between 1920 and the early 2000s, while in 2022 – therefore only twenty years later – the number had risen to 2,600: consequence of prolonged drought and uncontrolled use of aquifers for irrigation. As he explains to Reuters Fetullah Arikamong the experts who are studying the phenomenon, “the level of the aquifers is lowering slightly every year and the rate of lowering has reached 4-5 meters per year, compared to half a meter in the 2000s”.
Nearly 700 new sinkholes
According to reports Türkiye Todaythe new mapping has documented for accuracy 684 sinkholes of various sizes and depths appeared between Konya, Karaman and Aksaray, an area known as the “breadbasket of Turkey”, where mainly corn, wheat and sugar beet are grown. Of these, 534 formations are concentrated only in the district of Karapinar, considered thesinkhole epicenter. Specifically, 331 were classified by “sudden collapse”, while the other 272 depend on subsidence gradual, i.e. by a slow lowering of the land. The main problem are collapses, because they can occur without warning, engulfing land, structures and livestock.
The problem of water resources
The Konya Basin has also long been a site of an international project (OurMED), whose objective is to improve the water distribution system to address the problems of scarcity and overexploitation of water resources, restoring the drained wetlands. And today, through the continuous updating of the Sinkhole Sensitivity Map, we can avoid possible environmental disasters.
