Urmia Lake Watershed Restoration in Iran: Short- and Long-Term Perspectives

Summary, in English

Urmia Lake (also known as Oroumieh Lake) is a shallow terminal lake located in northwest Iran and one of the largest permanent lakes in the Middle East. Due to its biodiversity it has been designated as a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO and a National Park under the 1971 Ramsar Convention. At present, the entire lake’s watershed is threatened due to drought and abrupt decline of the lake’s water level and the consequent increase of salinity. The rapidly declining eco-environmental conditions have serious impacts on the socio-economy of the whole region. In this paper we review the environmental state of art and suggest measures to improve the lake’s ecology by short- and long-term restoration possibilities. There are indications that the hydrology of the area could be described by a chaotic climate and a low-dimensional dynamical system. However, also the human impact is strong due to mismanagement of water resources. It is concluded that a multidisciplinary integrated approach is needed to tackle the current critical situation.

• Författare: Sina Khatami; Ronny Berndtsson
• Avdelning/ar: Avdelningen för Teknisk vattenresurslära; Centrum för Mellanösternstudier (CMES); MECW: The Middle East in the Contemporary World
• Publiceringsår: 2013
• Språk: Engelska
• Publikation/Tidskrift/Serie: [Host publication title missing]
• Fulltext: - 491 kB; Download statistics
• Dokumenttyp: Konferensbidrag
• Förlag: Environmental & Water Resources Institute (EWRI) / American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE)
• Ämne: Water Engineering
• Nyckelord: Urmia Lake; lake restoration; watershed restoration; watershed management; chaos; phase diagram; water resources; Middle East
• Conference name: 6th International Perspective on Water Resources & the Environment conference (IPWE 2013)
• Conference date: 2013-01-07 - 2013-01-09
• Conference place: Izmir, Turkey
• Status: Published