Assessing climate and human activity effects on lake characteristics using spatio-temporal satellite data and an emotional neural network

Abstract

Different sensing methods provide valuable information for comprehensive monitoring strategies, which are crucial for the ecological management of lakes and watersheds. Subsequently, the resulting spatio-temporal information can be considered the fundamental knowledge for the water resources management of watersheds. Lake Urmia is deemed one of the most important aquatic habitats in Iran. It has been experiencing significant changes during recent years due to climate change, anthropogenic activities, and a lack of coherent management approaches. Hence, awareness of the hydro-ecological factors during the last few decades is critical for identifying the problems. In this research, the impacts of changes in key parameters such as precipitation, evapotranspiration, water surface temperatures, suspended sediment concentration, saline features, and vegetation are explored using satellite imagery. The primary purpose of this study is to evaluate the Lake Urmia crisis concerning human-involved and climate factors such as the agriculture sector and construction of the causeway. In this regard, a limbic based Emotional Artificial Neural Network (EANN) is developed as a non-linear universal mapping and implemented for the first time to demonstrate the interactions between the considered hydro-ecological factors and the sensitivity of the two indicators the lake health. Providing a comprehensive spatio-temporal analysis is another objective of this study in order to detect the onset of deterioration in the parameters. The values of the efficiency criteria were measured to evaluate the sensitivity of the EANN models to the related inputs. The quantitative results confirm that the combination of both climate and anthropogenic factors, including the agricultural sector's overdraft, leads to the most efficient EANN model and, consequently, is considered the leading cause of the crisis.

Research on Inversion of Suspended Sediment Concentration in Estuary Surface Based on Remote Sensing and GIS

“…Researchers have inverted SSC in the Yellow Sea using monthly average MODIS data, and they believe that the transport of suspended sediment exhibits significant seasonal variation characteristics and that the strong winds and waves as well as coastal currents in winter cause high SSC values in certain areas of the sea area. Researchers have investigated the characteristics of the offshore temperature front's distribution and changing laws [19][20][21][22][23][24].…”

Assessing Climate and Human Activity Effects on Hypersaline Lake Ecosystem: Case Study of Saki Lake, Crimea

“…There is a strong evaporation of water, which causes the decrease in water level. This is the common tendency, which was noted for many salt lakes all over the world: namely, Urmia Lake, Owens Lake, Aral Sea, and the Great Salt Lake in Utah, which have been decreasing, breaking the balance, and resulting in the reduction in each lake's water level [2,11,36,37]. However, there is no correlation between water temperature and salinity.…”

“…Salt lakes are unique and unusual water bodies, because many abiotic and biotic parameters in the ecosystem can be changed due to environmental factors, namely air and water temperature, concentration of oxygen, pH, Eh, and chemical composition, both annually and daily. Climate change accompanied with global warming and unsustainable anthropogenic activities can affect salt lakes ecosystems [32][33][34] and disturb these water bodies, especially at the case of drying [35][36][37]. At a global scale, the warming that resulted from climate change influenced primary production, reducing the input of nutrients into surface waters from mixing [38,39].…”

“…Therefore, it is able to indirectly impact the physical, chemical and biological processes in the ecosystem and can decline or lose ecosystem services, namely food provision, climate regulation, avifauna support, education and landscape aesthetics [3]. These dramatic consequences are well known for the Aral Sea [40], Lake Urmia [36] and some others [11]. Therefore, to understand the functioning mechanisms of aquatic ecosystems and their adaptation to the extreme conditions in zones with arid and semi-arid climate, the factors that govern the dynamics of water body parameters are important for their protection and the management optimization of their resources exploitation.…”