Urmia Lake Salinity and Evaporation Management: Prioritizing Critical Areas

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Faculty of Civil, Water, and Environmental Engineering, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran 1983969411, Iran

Abstract

By examining the evapotranspiration rate of the northern and southern parts of Urmia Lake, an attempt has been made to find a better solution for sustainable management of the region based on prioritizing sensitive areas for further attention. By integrating Landsat-based evapotranspiration estimates into a GIS framework, we spatially identify and rank the most vulnerable zones, thereby guiding targeted management strategies. To calculate evapotranspiration, the SEBAL algorithm was used with the help of Landsat satellite data from 2002 to 2020. Due to its comparative nature, the evapotranspiration rate was calculated in a simplified manner and without considering meteorological parameters. First, by examining the rate of groundwater changes, we found that the rate of decrease in both regions was almost the same, and this data was obtained from the GRACE satellite. Using precipitation data and calculating the standard precipitation index (SPI), we concluded that when precipitation decreased in the southern part, evaporation was much higher than in the northern part with increasing temperature, while in different time intervals, they changed almost at a constant ratio in both regions, which indicates that water salinity has increased due to climate change, which has led to increased evaporation and ultimately a further decrease in lake water in the southern part, which requires attention to this area in regional management.

Keywords

References

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History

  • Receive Date: 22 February 2025
  • Revise Date: 12 April 2025
  • Accept Date: 29 May 2025
  • First Publish Date: 30 May 2025

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