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Abstract
Increasing of world population in recent decades and developing technology, have led to rapid urbanization. In this process, the expansion of urban areas have caused many environmental problems. Also, cities create air, water and soil pollution. As well as urban sprawl have started to put pressure on forests, water resources, natural landscapes and agricultural fields that surrounds urban areas. This pressure also affect agricultural land which is essential for human survival and is the main economic activity. Loss of productive agricultural lands have economic and ecological consequences and the loss of fertile lands reduce countries/cities’ capacity to feed itself and made them dependent.
The aim of the study, exhibit the loss of agricultural lands and determined to present information about this subject. The case area is Konya, where has been growing rapidly and urban area has expanded in great measure after 1950s. Also, Konya is located on fertile agricultural lands and agriculture is an important economic sector in Konya. Whereas, after 1970’s a large amount of agricultural land, approximately 15,000 hectares, have been urbanized because of urban sprawl. During this period, fertile agricultural lands especially in the southern and western part of the city have been urbanized. After 1960 development plans aimed to protect agricultural lands, but enough success has not achieved due to lack of economic solutions.