- 01
Location and climate profile
A 30-year climate profile covering 1991–2020 is derived for the selected provincial centre or for the project site you mark on the map. The profile consists of monthly precipitation, reference evapotranspiration (ET₀) and annual minimum temperature series, computed at hourly resolution from the Copernicus ERA5-Land / ERA5 reanalyses.
- 02
Taxonomic matching
The Turkish, trade or scientific name you enter is matched at species level to a verified name record. For ambiguous names the system does not guess; you are asked to choose the correct taxon. Former and current scientific names of a plant are linked. If there is no cultivar-specific source, a cultivar takes the values of its own species, and this is stated in the details; data are never transferred to another species or genus.
- 03
Source synthesis
For each plant, records from the Ministry’s provincial guides, academic publications from Türkiye, institutional guides and international horticultural databases are brought together. When sources report different classes, a single class or a range is determined with predefined, versioned decision rules that take source families and publication context into account; opposing records are not deleted but shown in the details.
- 04
Local water need model
The plant’s source water-use class is assessed together with the atmospheric water demand and effective rainfall of the location in the summer months. The model computes the monthly water deficit and converts the result into a five-level relative scale (drops). The scale is calibrated on the 30-year climate of the 81 provincial centres: in a typical Turkish summer the local result equals the source class; it decreases in wetter or cooler places and increases in hotter and drier places. The result is not litres or an irrigation schedule but a relative indicator for comparing the plants in the same project.
- 05
Winter suitability model
The cold-hardiness limit reported for the plant in the sources is compared with the 30-year winter minima of the location, and the winter risk is classified by the safety margin between them. The same plant can therefore receive a different result in each city.
- 06
Decision support and report
Water need and winter suitability are combined into an overall result; drought tolerance is shown as separate information. The plants are also grouped into irrigation zones (hydrozones) by their water need. The rationale and sources of each result appear in the detail panel and in the downloadable PDF/Excel report.
Reading the results
- Relative results: the drops are for comparing the plants within the same project; they are not an irrigation amount.
- Unknown value: “No data” does not mean a low water need or a safe winter; it only shows that no reliable source was found.
- Out of scope: soil, pH, slope, maintenance, irrigation system and plot microclimate are not assessed.
- Resolution: the climate data are based on a grid of about 9 km; local frost pockets such as valley floors may not be fully reflected.
To examine the method in detail
The formulas, data sources, station validation, before/after comparisons across the 81 provinces and the limitations are described in the method paper: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23436244
Gilik, E., & Yılmaz, M. (2026). KURAS: A decision support system for the water need and winter suitability of landscape plants in Türkiye [Preprint]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23436244
A companion study re-runs the unchanged method with the climates of 2050 and 2090 (15 CMIP6 models, SSP2-4.5 and SSP5-8.5): https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23436246
Gilik, E., & Yılmaz, M. (2026). Climate change impact on local water need and winter suitability of landscape plants in Türkiye: 2050 and 2090 projections with KURAS [Preprint]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.23436246
Both papers are English editions of Turkish originals, which are linked from the Zenodo records.