Human and Climate Effects on the Hamoun Wetlands

Maleki, Saeideh; Koupaei, Saeid Soltani; Soffianian, Alireza; Saatchi, Sassan; Pourmanafi, Saeid; Rahdari, Vahid

doi:10.1175/wcas-d-18-0070.1

Cited by 26 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…In arid and semi-arid regions, groundwater is a secure source of water that should be saved for drought periods and water shortages. Basing agriculture on groundwater resources has led to agricultural droughts and has also had many socioeconomic and environmental impacts; e.g., land subsidence [59], abandonment in rural areas [60], depression, suicide of rural farmers [61,62], and household food consumption [63]. Overall, we identified three clear stages in Fars province in the 40-year study period.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 87%

Unsustainability Syndrome—From Meteorological to Agricultural Drought in Arid and Semi-Arid Regions

Haghighi

Zaki

Rossi

et al. 2020

Water

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Water is the most important resource for sustainable agriculture in arid and semi-arid regions, where agriculture is the mainstay for rural societies. By relating the water usage to renewable water resources, we define three stages from sustainable to unsustainable water resources: (1) sustainable, where water use is matched by renewable water capacity, ensuring sustainable water resources; (2) transitional, where water use occasionally exceeds renewable water capacity; and (3) unsustainable, with lack of water resources for agriculture, society, and the environment. Using available drought indicators (standardized precipitation index (SPI) and streamflow drought index (SDI)) and two new indices for agricultural drought (overall agricultural drought index (OADI) and agricultural drought index (ADI)), we evaluated these stages using the example of Fars province in southern Iran in the period 1977–2016. A hyper-arid climate prevailed for an average of 32% of the province’s spatio-temporal coverage during the study period. The area increased significantly from 30.6% in the first decade (1977–1986) to 44.4% in the last (2006–2015). The spatiotemporal distribution of meteorological drought showed no significant negative trends in annual precipitation during 1977–2016, but the occurrence of hydrological droughts increased significantly in the period 1997–2016. The expansion of irrigated area, with more than 60% of rainfed agriculture replaced by irrigated agriculture (especially between 1997 and 2006), exerted substantial pressure on surface water and groundwater resources. Together, climate change, reduced river flow, and significant declines in groundwater level in major aquifers led to unsustainable use of water resources, a considerable reduction in irrigated area, and unsustainability in agricultural production in the period 2006–2015. Analysis of causes and effects of meteorological, hydrological, and agricultural drought in the area identified three clear stages: before 1997 being sustainable, 1997–2006 being transitional, and after 2006 being unsustainable.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 87%

Unsustainability Syndrome—From Meteorological to Agricultural Drought in Arid and Semi-Arid Regions

Haghighi

Zaki

Rossi

et al. 2020

Water

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“…This paper aims to investigate if human activities in the upstream of a basin can exacerbate the effects of climate change on habitats in the downstream and to highlight the importance of the human in aggregating the consequences of climate change on water birds’ habitat. This study was conducted in the Helmand basin, where the previous research confirmed the occurrence of climate change 31 , leading to a significant reduction in precipitation and an increase in mean annual temperature 31 , 32 . Since, in the downstream of this basin, there are wetlands providing the most important habitat for migrant, resident, and wintering water birds in a vast desert, it is important to identify the effects of humans on the habitat of water birds.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 80%

“…Figures 1 and 2 showed the climate is getting warmer and drier. Maleki et al 31 confirmed that the climate change occurred in the last years of the 90th, leading to precipitation decline and temperature increase; therefore, the decline of natural plants is due to precipitation decrease. In 2002, agriculture was dominant, while natural plants were decreased dramatically.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Humans in the upstream can exacerbate climate change impacts on water birds’ habitat in the downstream

Maleki

Rahdari

Baghdadi

2021

Sci Rep

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The present paper aims to quantify how human-made changes in the upstream exacerbate climate change impacts on water birds’ habitat in the downstream. To reduce climate change effects and design adaptation policies, it is important to identify whether human activities understate or overstate the effects of climate change in a region on its inhabitants. This paper also shows how human activities may magnify climate change impacts both locally and regionally. Land-use/land-cover change as the important sign of human-made destruction in an ecosystem was detected in the upstream of the Helmand basin over 40 years. Owing to conflicts in Afghanistan, studies on this basin are rare. The water bird’s habitat suitability maps during the study period were created using the maximum entropy model and the multi-criteria evaluation method. The post-classification method was applied to show the land-use/land-cover change over 40 years. These results were compared to the area of suitable habitat for water birds. The findings of these analyses indicated that the irrigated farming was expanded in the upstream despite climate change and water limitation, while the water birds’ habitat in the downstream was declined. These results revealed that the unsustainable pattern of farming and blocking water behind dams in the upstream exacerbated the negative effects of climate change on water birds’ habitat in the downstream. The significance of this study is to demonstrate the role of human in exacerbating climate change impacts both locally and regionally.

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“…In recent years, some studies have attempted to optimize the allocation of water resources in the Sistan region to achieve the optimal cropping pattern and greater agricultural productivity [32,33]. There are also studies that aim to address the environmental challenges and drought hazard and strategize to revitalize the Hamoon Wetland [34][35][36]. Nevertheless, the interaction of water use between the agricultural and environmental needs has not been investigated for the Sistan region.…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainable Water Resources Management in an Arid Area Using a Coupled Optimization-Simulation Modeling

Farrokhzadeh

Monfared

Azizyan

et al. 2020

Water

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Severe water scarcity in recent years has magnified the economic, social, and environmental significance of water stress globally, making optimal planning in water resources necessary for sustainable socio-economic development. One of the regions that is most affected by this is the Sistan region and its Hamoun wetland, located in south-east Iran. Water policies are essential to sustain current basin ecosystem services, maintaining a balance between conflicting demands from agriculture and the protection of wetland ecosystems. In the present study, a multi-objective optimization model is linked with the Water Evaluation and Planning (WEAP) software to optimize water allocation decisions over multiple years. We formulate and parameterize a multi-objective optimization problem where the net economic benefit from agriculture and the supply of environmental requirements were maximized, to analyze the trade-off between different stakeholders. This problem is modeled and solved for the study area with detailed agricultural, socio-economic, and environmental data for 30 years and quantification of ecosystem services. By plotting Pareto sets, we investigate the trade-offs between the two conflicting objectives and evaluate a possible compromise. The results are analyzed by comparing purely economic versus multi-objective scenarios on the Pareto front. Finally, the disadvantages and advantages of these scenarios are also qualitatively described to help the decision process for water resources managers.

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Human and Climate Effects on the Hamoun Wetlands

Cited by 26 publications

References 38 publications

Unsustainability Syndrome—From Meteorological to Agricultural Drought in Arid and Semi-Arid Regions

Unsustainability Syndrome—From Meteorological to Agricultural Drought in Arid and Semi-Arid Regions

Humans in the upstream can exacerbate climate change impacts on water birds’ habitat in the downstream

Sustainable Water Resources Management in an Arid Area Using a Coupled Optimization-Simulation Modeling

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