Details
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 209 |
| Number of pages | 14 |
| Journal | Hydrology |
| Volume | 11 |
| Issue number | 12 |
| Publication status | Published - 3 Dec 2024 |
Abstract
The water level and surface area of Urmia Lake, located in the northwest of Iran, has decreased dramatically, presenting significant challenges for hydrological modeling due to complex interactions between surface and groundwater. In this study, the impact of agricultural activities on streamflow within one of the largest sub-basins of Urmia Lake is assessed using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) for hydrological assessments. To have accurate assessments, land use change detections were considered by a novel method, which merges the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) with the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) to create a two-band NDVI-DEM image, effectively differentiating between agricultural and rangeland fields. Our findings reveal that agricultural development and irrigation, escalating between 1977 and 2015, resulted in increased annual evapotranspiration (ET) (ranging from 295 mm to 308 mm) and a decrease in yearly streamflow, from 317 million cubic meters to 300 million cubic meters. Overall, our study highlights the significant role that agricultural development and irrigation may play in contributing to the shrinking of Lake Urmia, underscoring the need for improved regional water management strategies to address these challenges, though further analysis across additional basins would be necessary for broader conclusions.
Keywords
- ENVI, irrigated agriculture, land use change, SWAT, SWAT-CUP, Urmia Lake
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Earth and Planetary Sciences(all)
- Oceanography
- Environmental Science(all)
- Water Science and Technology
- Environmental Science(all)
- Waste Management and Disposal
- Earth and Planetary Sciences(all)
- Earth-Surface Processes
Sustainable Development Goals
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In: Hydrology, Vol. 11, No. 12, 209, 03.12.2024.
Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › Research › peer review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Linking Land Use Change and Hydrological Responses
T2 - The Role of Agriculture in the Decline of Urmia Lake
AU - Mirdarsoltany, Amirhossein
AU - Dariane, Alireza B.
AU - Ghasemi, Mahboobeh
AU - Farhoodi, Sepehr
AU - Asadi, Roza
AU - Moghaddam, Akbar
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2024 by the authors.
PY - 2024/12/3
Y1 - 2024/12/3
N2 - The water level and surface area of Urmia Lake, located in the northwest of Iran, has decreased dramatically, presenting significant challenges for hydrological modeling due to complex interactions between surface and groundwater. In this study, the impact of agricultural activities on streamflow within one of the largest sub-basins of Urmia Lake is assessed using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) for hydrological assessments. To have accurate assessments, land use change detections were considered by a novel method, which merges the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) with the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) to create a two-band NDVI-DEM image, effectively differentiating between agricultural and rangeland fields. Our findings reveal that agricultural development and irrigation, escalating between 1977 and 2015, resulted in increased annual evapotranspiration (ET) (ranging from 295 mm to 308 mm) and a decrease in yearly streamflow, from 317 million cubic meters to 300 million cubic meters. Overall, our study highlights the significant role that agricultural development and irrigation may play in contributing to the shrinking of Lake Urmia, underscoring the need for improved regional water management strategies to address these challenges, though further analysis across additional basins would be necessary for broader conclusions.
AB - The water level and surface area of Urmia Lake, located in the northwest of Iran, has decreased dramatically, presenting significant challenges for hydrological modeling due to complex interactions between surface and groundwater. In this study, the impact of agricultural activities on streamflow within one of the largest sub-basins of Urmia Lake is assessed using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) for hydrological assessments. To have accurate assessments, land use change detections were considered by a novel method, which merges the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) with the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) to create a two-band NDVI-DEM image, effectively differentiating between agricultural and rangeland fields. Our findings reveal that agricultural development and irrigation, escalating between 1977 and 2015, resulted in increased annual evapotranspiration (ET) (ranging from 295 mm to 308 mm) and a decrease in yearly streamflow, from 317 million cubic meters to 300 million cubic meters. Overall, our study highlights the significant role that agricultural development and irrigation may play in contributing to the shrinking of Lake Urmia, underscoring the need for improved regional water management strategies to address these challenges, though further analysis across additional basins would be necessary for broader conclusions.
KW - ENVI
KW - irrigated agriculture
KW - land use change
KW - SWAT
KW - SWAT-CUP
KW - Urmia Lake
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85213479300&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/hydrology11120209
DO - 10.3390/hydrology11120209
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85213479300
VL - 11
JO - Hydrology
JF - Hydrology
IS - 12
M1 - 209
ER -