Modeling and Remote Sensing of Water Storage Change in Lake Urmia Basin, Iran
General Material Designation
[Thesis]
First Statement of Responsibility
Suyog Chaudhari
Subsequent Statement of Responsibility
Pokhrel, Yadu
.PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, ETC
Name of Publisher, Distributor, etc.
Michigan State University
Date of Publication, Distribution, etc.
2017
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION
Specific Material Designation and Extent of Item
85
GENERAL NOTES
Text of Note
Committee members: Dahlin, Kyla; Li, Shuguang
NOTES PERTAINING TO PUBLICATION, DISTRIBUTION, ETC.
Text of Note
Place of publication: United States, Ann Arbor; ISBN=978-1-369-76172-6
DISSERTATION (THESIS) NOTE
Dissertation or thesis details and type of degree
M.S.
Discipline of degree
Civil Engineering
Body granting the degree
Michigan State University
Text preceding or following the note
2017
SUMMARY OR ABSTRACT
Text of Note
Lake Urmia, the second largest saline lake in the world, is on the verge of drying up completely and creating a massive environmental disaster in the region. Several studies have suggested that the intensive irrigation activities and prolonged droughts are the main causes for the depletion, but none of them have simulated the anthropogenic activity in the watershed. In this study, stream flow simulated from a land surface model with anthropogenic impact assessment capabilities (HiGW-MAT) is used, along with a high resolution land use land cover change map, to investigate the natural and human-induced changes in the hydrology of Lake Urmia basin. The overall goal of the study is to attribute the observed changes in lake volume to natural and anthropogenic factors. Analysis of the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) over the Lake Urmia region suggests that the on-going depletion of the lake is not solely due to prolonged droughts alone. Anthropogenic activities have also caused a significant change in land use, streamflow, and water storage within the watershed. There has been a 98% and 180% increase in the total area of agricultural land and urban areas, respectively, from 1987 to 2016, with a corresponding shrinkage of 86% in the lake area. The linear trend of the lake volume and Terrestrial Water Storage (TWS) from HiGW-MAT model suggest that the watershed is gaining water from the lake at a rate of 0.28 km3/year, which could be because of the numerous water resources projects in operation in the watershed. Furthermore, the comparison of streamflow output of HiGW-MAT model with and without human impact showed an average reduction of 2.66 km 3/year from 1998 to 2010, further suggesting the significant role of human activities on the depletion of the lake volume.
TOPICAL NAME USED AS SUBJECT
Hydrologic sciences; Climate Change; Water Resource Management