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Monitoring and Assessment of Water Level Fluctuations of the Lake Urmia and Its Environmental Consequences Using Multitemporal Landsat 7 ETM+ Images

Nhu VH 1 , Mohammadi A 2 , Shahabi H 3 , Shirzadi A 4 , Al-Ansari N 5 , Ahmad BB 6 Show all authors , Chen W 7 , Khodadadi M 8 , Ahmadi M 9 , Khosravi K 10 , Jaafari A 11 , Nguyen H 12

Affiliations 

  • 1 Geographic Information Science Research Group, Ton Duc Thang University, Ho Chi Minh City 700000, Vietnam
  • 2 Department of Remote Sensing and GIS, University of Tabriz, Tabriz 51666-16471, Iran
  • 3 Department of Geomorphology, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj 66177-15175, Iran
  • 4 Department of Rangeland and Watershed Management, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Kurdistan, ‎Sanandaj 66177-15175, Iran
  • 5 Department of Civil, Environmental and Natural Resources Engineering, Lulea University of Technology, 971 87 Lulea, Sweden
  • 6 Department of Geoinformation, Faculty of Built Environment and Surveying, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), Johor Bahru 81310, Malaysia
  • 7 College of Geology & Environment, Xi'an University of Science and Technology, Xi'an 710054, China
  • 8 School of Business and Creative Industries, University of the West of Scotland, Paisley PA1 2BE, UK
  • 9 Department of Geomorphology, Faculty of Planning and Environmental Sciences, University of Tabriz, Tabriz 51666-16471, Iran
  • 10 School of Engineering, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada
  • 11 Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands, Agricultural Research, Education, and Extension Organization (AREEO), P.O. Box 64414-356, Tehran, Iran
  • 12 Institute of Research and Development, Duy Tan University, Da Nang 550000, Vietnam
Int J Environ Res Public Health, 2020 06 12;17(12).
PMID: 32545634 DOI: 10.3390/ijerph17124210

Abstract

The declining water level in Lake Urmia has become a significant issue for Iranian policy and decision makers. This lake has been experiencing an abrupt decrease in water level and is at real risk of becoming a complete saline land. Because of its position, assessment of changes in the Lake Urmia is essential. This study aims to evaluate changes in the water level of Lake Urmia using the space-borne remote sensing and GIS techniques. Therefore, multispectral Landsat 7 ETM+ images for the years 2000, 2010, and 2017 were acquired. In addition, precipitation and temperature data for 31 years between 1986 and 2017 were collected for further analysis. Results indicate that the increased temperature (by 19%), decreased rainfall of about 62%, and excessive damming in the Urmia Basin along with mismanagement of water resources are the key factors in the declining water level of Lake Urmia. Furthermore, the current research predicts the potential environmental crisis as the result of the lake shrinking and suggests a few possible alternatives. The insights provided by this study can be beneficial for environmentalists and related organizations working on this and similar topics.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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