War-Induced Soil Degradation, Depletion, and Destruction (The Case of Ground Fortifications in the Terrestrial Environment of Kuwait)

Misak, Raafat; Al‐Ajmi, D.; Al-Enezi, Abdullah

doi:10.1007/978-3-540-87963-3_4

Cited by 4 publications

(5 citation statements)

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“…One might argue that it is obvious that military/anthropogenic activities will have a visible impact on dust loadings. Undeniably, troop transport and maneuvering, and ground trenches destroy the topsoil layer, facilitating the development of dust and/or sandstorms [61]. However, to the best of our knowledge, evidence for a secular signature of such an anthropogenic impact on atmospheric turbidity is scarce.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Past evidence indicates that impacts of armed conflicts on the natural environment often linger for years. A famous example is the bombing of Kuwaiti oil wells in the early 1990s, which resulted in extensive near-term air, water, and land pollution [69,70]; drastic damage to the desert surface [32,34] and its ground cover [61], and changes in surface sediment and morphological features leading to land-surface degradation over the long term [70][71][72][73]. Specifically, Koch and El-Baz [71] showed that the Gulf War remobilized 17% of Kuwait's sand sheets, reclassifying geomorphic features and changing the landscape.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Specifically, Koch and El-Baz [71] showed that the Gulf War remobilized 17% of Kuwait's sand sheets, reclassifying geomorphic features and changing the landscape. Misak et al [61] reported that during the second and third Gulf Wars (1990-1991 and 2003, respectively), the terrestrial ecosystem was severely damaged by military operations, having different onsite (e.g., terrain deformation) and offsite (an increase in the rates of sand transport and dust fallout) impacts. Therefore, the steep increase and decrease in AOD values observed here paralleling the military activity in Iraq strongly suggest cause and effect.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Secular Changes in Atmospheric Turbidity over Iraq and a Possible Link to Military Activity

Chudnovsky

Kostinski

2020

Remote Sensing

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We examine satellite-derived aerosol optical depth (AOD) data during the period 2000–2018 over the Middle East to evaluate the contribution of anthropogenic pollution. We focus on Iraq, where US troops were present for nearly nine years. We begin with a plausibility argument linking anthropogenic influence and AOD signature. We then calculate the percent change in AOD every two years. To pinpoint the causes for changes in AOD on a spatial basis, we distinguish between synoptically “calm” periods and those with vigorous synoptic activity. This was done on high-resolution 10 km AOD retrievals from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) sensor (Terra satellite). We found spatiotemporal variability in the intensity of the AOD and its standard deviation along the dust-storm corridor during three studied periods: before Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) (1 March 2000–19 March 2003), during OIF (20 March 2003–1 September 2010), and Operation New Dawn (OND; 1 September 2010–18 December 2011), and after the US troops’ withdrawal (19 December 2011–31 December 2018). Pixels of military camps and bases, major roads and areas of conflict, and their corresponding AOD values, were selected to study possible effects. We found that winter, with its higher frequency of days with synoptically “calm” conditions compared to spring and summer, was the best season to quantitatively estimate the impact of these ground-based sources. Surprisingly, an anthropogenic impact on the AOD signature was also visible during vigorous synoptic activity. Meteorological conditions that favor detection of these effects using space imagery are discussed, where the effects are more salient than in surrounding regions with similar meteorological conditions. This exceeds expectations when considering synoptic variations alone.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Secular Changes in Atmospheric Turbidity over Iraq and a Possible Link to Military Activity

Chudnovsky

Kostinski

2020

Remote Sensing

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“…Limited publications are referring to the environmental impacts of war which mainly address specific areas (Sudan, Iraq, Vietnam, Congo), neglecting many areas that have experienced successive military conflicts, such as the Philippines or Myanmar. A particularly large number of publications are addressing the Gulf War (1991) considering the soil contamination due to the destruction of oil wells and air pollution caused by their combustion (Al Ajmi and Ud din, 2009; Khordagui and Al-Ajmi, 1993; Misak et al, 2009;Omar et al, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Environmental impacts of war’s social consequences. Case Study: Aleppo Governorate Syria

Papadimitriou

Koumoulidis

Papalamprou³

et al. 2021

EMBnet j.

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War is an anthropogenic phenomenon with devastating effects, which cause loss of human life, alongside the disastrous effects on the natural environment. The environmental impacts of armed conflicts can be either direct, arising from the act of war itself, or indirect due to the massive population displacement, infrastructure breakdown, and militarised zones. Impacts may be irreversible, affecting areas even far away from the territory of the conflict where they manifest. The environmental impacts of war create social and economic consequences that lead to greater environmental degradation by showing the interdependent relationship between the environment, society, and economy. It is imperative to address the subject in a multidisciplinary approach and implement stricter international legislation on environmental disasters during wars. This study aims to identify environmental impacts by using satellite-derived images at Aleppo Governorate, analyse them via statistics supplemented with the available information for the research region, and demonstrate the subsequent social and economic consequences by creating indices, such as the Normalised Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), digital image composites and classified images, which record the extent of reduction of healthy vegetation and the extent of destruction at the city of Aleppo. Data from international organisations corroborated the findings, and hereinafter societal and economic effects were analysed. Using remote sensing alongside with geographic information systems can be a useful tool as it offers access to war zones where physical observations are usually impossible.

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“…One of the global issues related to ecology and soil science is land degradation (Graves et al 2015;Gregory et al 2015;Bagarello et al 2018). Increasing anthropogenic and technogenic impacts on land cover lead to its depletion and/or destruction (Misak et al 2009). This entails the loss of valuable agricultural land and the degradation of natural landscapes, the restoration and reclamation of which are known to be very slow (Williamson et al 1982;Pacheco et al 2018;Gonzalez-Roglich et al 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microbiome of post-technogenic soils of quarries in the Republic of Bashkortostan (Russia)

et al. 2020

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The state of the microbial community is an essential factor determining the processes of soil restoration of disturbed soils. Quarrying and mining complexes are valuable sites for studying soil formation processes. Four different quarries (gypsum, sand–gravel mixture, sand, and clay) of the Republic of Bashkortostan were surveyed to determine the status of the microbial community of post-technogenic soils. Amplicon libraries of the 16s rDNA gene were analyzed. It was shown that the microbial communities of different soil horizons of quarries differ significantly. According to the results of the analysis, quarry communities demonstrate differences in the microbial composition of different horizons, while in some cases, the upper horizon is richer.

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War-Induced Soil Degradation, Depletion, and Destruction (The Case of Ground Fortifications in the Terrestrial Environment of Kuwait)

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

Secular Changes in Atmospheric Turbidity over Iraq and a Possible Link to Military Activity

Secular Changes in Atmospheric Turbidity over Iraq and a Possible Link to Military Activity

Environmental impacts of war’s social consequences. Case Study: Aleppo Governorate Syria

Microbiome of post-technogenic soils of quarries in the Republic of Bashkortostan (Russia)

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