STATISTICAL EVALUATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL INDICATORS IN TURKEY

Abstract

In the last century, there has been an alarming increase in the human population, which is one of the factors that cause environmental degradation. Especially the harmful and toxic pollutants emerging in the environment with population growth have aroused global concerns and revealed the necessity of continuing the substantial global efforts to reduce environmental pollution and protect human health. In this study, it is aimed to examine the environmental indicator parameters in Turkey according to years and population. In the first stage, water abstraction for municipal water supply network, the amount of wastewater discharged, the amount of municipal waste, distribution of net electricity consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in the last ten years were evaluated. The results showed that the number of drinking water treatment plants has increased over the years, the amount of wastewater discharged to receiving environments has increased by 27%, the amount of municipal waste collected and the amount of waste delivered to controlled landfill site are at their highest value in 2020. In the second stage, statistical study was carried out and the relationship between the population of Turkey and environmental indicators was determined by applying Spearman correlation analysis. There is a strong positive relationship between the population of Turkey and total electricity consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. A complete correlation was observed between the population of Turkey and the amount of collected municipal waste, the amount of discharged wastewater and water abstraction for municipal water supply network.