Paleoflood Analyses in Southeastern Turkey: Batman Case

In this study, paleoflood analyses were performed in order to determine the frequency of flood and overflow incidents which have caused loss of life and property in Batman in recent years. Batman, founded as Iluh village in Southeastern Turkey, is now a city thanks to developments in oil industry in migration from rural areas within 50 years. The number and frequency of floods are increasing as city center expanded to the river bed. Sediment log wells are opened to determine paleoflood features. Thermoluminescence and radiocarbon analyses are applied to the samples collected from log wells near Iluh riverbed where river fan widens. The sedimentological data revealed that 3 catastrophic flood occurred at present location of the city center. Radiocarbon analyses (14C) dated the first flood 1420±21 years BP, the third was dated back to 220±25 years BP. According to historical data, the period of the second flood between the first and third one dates back to 800 years BP. Thermoluminescence analyses showed a decrease in flood energy from past to present. Other than these analyses, regional scaled geoarchaeological and historical data and studies on the climate changes were compared and the accuracy of the discovered dates was tested.