The Lake Urmia environmental disaster in Iran: A look at aerosol pollution

Abstract

Lake Urmia (LU) once was the second largest hypersaline lake in the world, covering up to 6000 km2, but has undergone catastrophic desiccation in recent years resulting in loss of 90% of its area and extensive coverage by playas and marshlands that represent a source of salt and dust. This study examines daily Aerosol Optical Depth (AOD) data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) between 2001 and 2015 over northwestern Iran, which encompasses LU. Intriguingly, salt emissions from the LU surface associated with ongoing desiccation do not drive the study region’s AOD profile, whereas pollution transported from other regions and emissions around LU are more important. Signatures of increasing local crustal emissions are most evident outside of the peak dust season (January, February, and October) and on the periphery of LU. AOD has generally increased in the latter half of the study period with the onset of the AOD ramp-up starting a month earlier in the spring season when comparing 2009–2015 versus earlier years. Results indicate that suppression of emissions on the LU border is critical as the combined area of salt and salty soil bodies around LU have increased by two orders of magnitude in the past two decades, and disturbing these areas via activities such as grazing and salt harvesting on the lake surface can have more detrimental impacts on regional pollution as compared to benefits. These results have important implications for public health, climate, the hydrological cycle, and pollution control efforts.

Application of Satellite Remote Sensing for Estimation of Dust Emission Probability in the Urmia Lake Basin in Iran

“…The final selected study area ( Fig. 1e) is in agreement with the aerosol optical depth (AOD) maps of Mardi et al (2018), who delineated and mapped regions with high annual average AOD values.…”

“…Saline playas in arid and semiarid regions are the most important sources of unconsolidated sediments that are susceptible to dust emission (Abuduwaili et al, 2010;Gill, 1996). Issues with saline dust storms have been previously reported for a number of regions across the globe, including the Aral Sea in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan (Indoitu et al, 2015;Mees and Singer, 2006), Owens Lake in the United States Tyler et al, 1997), southeastern Australia (Abed et al, 2012), and the Urmia Lake Basin in Iran (Mardi et al, 2018;Gholampour et al, 2015).…”

“…Urmia Lake, located in northwestern Iran, is one of the largest hypersaline lakes in the world. Due to groundwater pumping, surface water diversions, and increased drought frequency (Nasiri et al, 2014), the water surface has diminished from approximately 5500 km 2 in 1972 to below 1000 km 2 in August 2014 (Mardi et al, 2018;AghaKouchak et al, 2014). At the same time, a salt playa covering an area of more than 4000 km 2 has been exposed (Eimanifar and Mohebbi, 2007).…”

Evaluating the Disaster Triage Knowledge of Nurses Personnel in Public Hospitals of Ilam

“…Iran is a disaster-prone country [9]. Previous crises in Iran have often challenged Iran's disaster management system in coping with disasters and their complications [10].…”

Comparison of the Effect of Lecturing and Tabletop Exercise Methods on Level of Preparedness of Nurses against Natural Disasters

“…n 2017, of 335 accidents, 136 occurred in Asia, 93 in the US, 42 in Africa, 39 in Europe, and 8 in Oceania [1]. Iran, as an Asian country, is highly exposed to natural disasters due to its specific geographical characteristics [2,3]. These disasters exert detrimental effects on human health, infrastructures, and facilities [4].…”