Document Type : Original Article

Authors

• Amir Rashidi Kordgheshlaghi
• Alireza Vafaeinejad
• Saeed Behzadi

Department of Surveying Engineering, Faculty of Civil, Water and Environmental Engineering, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, 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

• SEBAL
• Evapotranspiration
• SPI
• VHI
• Google earth engine