Changes in Mesopotamian Wetlands: Investigations Using Diverse Remote Sensing Datasets

Abstract

Early civilizations have inhabited stable-water-resourced areas that supported living needs and activities, including agriculture. The Mesopotamian marshes, recognised as the most ancient human-inhabited area (~6000 years ago) and refuge of rich biodiversity, have experienced dramatic changes during the past five decades, starting to fail in providing adequate environmental functioning and support of social communities as they used to for thousands of years. The aim of this study is to observe, analyse and report the extent of changes in these marshes from 1972 to 2020. Data from various remote sensing sources were acquired through Google Earth Engine (GEE) including climate variables, land cover, surface reflectance, and surface water occurrence collections. Results show a clear wetlands dynamism over time and a significant loss in marshlands extent, even though no significant long-term change was observed in lumped rainfall from 1982, and even during periods where no meteorological drought had been recorded. Human interventions have disturbed the ecosystems, which is evident when studying water occurrence changes. These show that the diversion of rivers and the building of a new drainage system caused the migration and spatiotemporal changes of marshlands. Nonetheless, restoration plans (after 2003) and strong wet conditions (period 2018 -2020) have helped to recover the ecosystems, these have not led the marshlands to regain their former extent. Further studies should pay more attention to the drainage network within the study area as well as the neighboring regions and their impact on the streamflow that feeds the study area.

تقدير اعداد المجاميع السكانية لترسة الفرات ملساء الصدفة Rafetus euphraticus في الاهوار الوسطى ( موقع تراث عالمي)

“…As a result of the Tigris-Euphrates river complex, the Central Marsh is one of the three main wetlands in Iraq. The Central Marsh formerly covered around 300,000 hectares but was almost totally drained following the 1991 uprisings in Iraq and has since been reflooded in 2003 -2004 9 . While the Central Marsh is Iraq's first national park officially recognized as Mesopotamian National Park in July 2013 64 .…”