Aral Sea syndrome desiccates Lake Urmia: Call for action

• DOI: 10.1016/j.jglr.2014.12.007
• Publication Date: 2014-12-31T15:34:01Z
• Authors: Amir AghaKouchak; Hamid Norouzi; Kaveh Madani; Ali Mirchi; Marzi Azarderakhsh; Ali Nazemi; Nasrin Nasrollahi; Alireza Farahmand; Ali Mehran; Elmira Hasanzadeh
• Keywords: 13. Climate action; 0207 environmental engineering; 02 engineering and technology; 15. Life on land; 01 natural sciences; 6. Clean water; 0105 earth and related environmental sciences

Lake Urmia, one of the largest saltwater lakes on earth and a highly endangered ecosystem, is on the brink of a major environmental disaster similar to the catastrophic death of the Aral Sea. With a new composite of multi-spectral high resolution satellite observations, we show that the area of this Iranian lake has decreased by around 88% in the past decades, far more than previously reported (~ 25% to 50%). The lake's shoreline has been receding severely with no sign of recovery, which has been partly blamed on prolonged droughts. We use the lake basin's satellite-based gauge-adjusted climate record of the Standardized Precipitation Index data to demonstrate that the on-going shoreline retreat is not solely an artifact of prolonged droughts alone. Drastic changes to lake health are primarily consequences of aggressive regional water resources development plans, intensive agricultural activities, anthropogenic changes to the system, and upstream competition over water. This commentary is a call for action to both develop sustainable restoration ideas and to put new visions and strategies into practice before Lake Urmia falls victim to the Aral Sea syndrome.