Worldwide environmental threats to salt lakes

Heydari, N.; Jabbari, Hadi

doi:10.2495/dne-v7-n3-292-299

Cited by 4 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…The population living in the vicinity of these drying lakes suffers from several health disorders [1,11,12]. In order to determine the relationship between the drying of the saline lakes and the prevailing health issues, this research draws on numerous studies regarding the health of the population living in the Aral Sea region that have been conducted in the past.…”

Section: Lake Drying Processesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drying Lakes: A Review on the Applied Restoration Strategies and Health Conditions in Contiguous Areas

Tussupova

Anchita

Hjorth

et al. 2020

Water

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Decrease of saline lakes, which comprise 44% of all available lake water, is a major concern. It additionally accelerates the desertification process of the region. Thus, various countries have taken different actions in protecting their lake water levels. The aim of this paper is to assess different strategies directed to tackle the decreased lake water levels in Lake Urmia and the Aral Sea, which split into the North Aral Sea and South Aral Sea. These are among the world’s largest and fastest drying saline lakes observed in the past 50 years and have both reduced to 10% of their original size. The paper presents a thorough review of academic reports, official documents, and databases. Although the dry-up of a lake is a natural process, it has been sped up by human interventions in the hydrological cycle. Dust storms (strong winds) cause problems in the surroundings. In the case of the Aral Sea, they transmit the pollutants from the dry lake bed causing severe health issues. Various strategies were implemented to manage the socio-economic conditions caused due to the drying of lakes. The strategy implemented for the North Aral Sea was to restore the lake by reducing the water withdrawals from the Syr Darya river, which lead to increased water inflow to the sea. The suggested strategy for Lake Urmia was to restore the lake by water transfer activities from various water sources. These projects have not yet been realized. The strategy implemented for the South Aral Sea was to use a dry lake bed to diversify the economy by oil and mineral extraction along with developing a tourist industry based on the considerable interest to come and observe an ecological disaster of such monumental proportions. These findings show that there is no common best solution for this type of problem. The best fit depends on the local context and it is strongly path-dependent.

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Section: Lake Drying Processesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drying Lakes: A Review on the Applied Restoration Strategies and Health Conditions in Contiguous Areas

Tussupova

Anchita

Hjorth

et al. 2020

Water

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“…The population living in the vicinity of these drying lakes are faced with several health disorders. It is widely believed that the drying of saltwater lakes causes health disorders (Heydari and Jabbari, 2012;Wiggs et al, 2003;Wurtsbaugh et al, 2016). In order to determine the relationship between the drying of the salt lakes and the prevailing health issues, this research considers the case studies of the Aral Sea region.…”

Section: Description Of Lake Drying Process and Its Effectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Drying Lakes: A Review on The Health Conditions and Restoration Strategies

Anchita¹,

Tussupova²,

Hjorth³

2020

Preprint

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Abstract: Decrease of saline lakes, which comprises of 44% of all the available lake water, is a major concern. It additionally brings to desertification process to the region. Thus, various countries have taken different actions in protecting their lake&#8217;s water level. The aim of this paper is to assess different strategies directed to tackle the decreasing saline lake water levels. Lake Urmia and the Aral Sea which split into North Aral and South Aral were among the world's largest saline lakes and now have reduced to 10% of their original size. A thorough review of academic reports, official documents and databases were considered. Although the dry-up of the lake is a natural process, it has been sped up by human interventions in the hydrology cycle. Dust storms (strong winds) in the case of the Aral Sea, transmit the pollutants from dry lake surface which initially accumulated in the lakebed causing severe health issue. Various strategies were implemented to manage the socio-economic conditions caused due to the drying of lakes. The strategy implemented for the North Aral Sea was to restore the lake by reducing the water withdrawal from tributary rivers which leads to increased water level in the sea. The strategy implemented for Lake Urmia was to restore the lake by water transfer activities from neighbouring water sources which until now show no increase in water level. The strategy implemented for the South Aral Sea was to use a dry lakebed to diversify the economy by oil and mineral extraction which shows the adaptation to the environmental conditions with no restoration strategy. As a conclusion, it is found that there is no common best solution for this kind of problem. The best fit depends on the local context and it is strongly path dependent.&#160;Keywords: Drying saline lake; Dust storms; Aral sea; Health impacts; Lake Urmia; Restoration of saline lake; Strategies.

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“…Early this century, several authors claimed the global trend of degradation affecting lakes [15,16]. This reflected the previous alarm calls that arose by scientists all around the world to be aware of the causes of the degradation of lakes [17].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

The Likely Status of Inland Salt Lake Ecosystems in 2050: Reminiscing and Revisiting Bill Williams

Comı́n¹

2023

Environmental Sciences

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The classical management approach of inland saline lake ecosystems focused on ecological issues, including conserving their biological communities and physical-chemical characteristics. However, the peculiarity of saline lake ecosystems is that they are in a limited watershed, in many cases a closed watershed. So, its management should be planned and performed at watershed scale, which has been frequently neglected. W.D. (Bill) Williams was one of the key persons rising awareness for conservation and promoting their rationale management based on scientific research results. This work shows, through a literature review, that classical management approaches included returning impacted salt lakes to initial conditions through, mostly, eliminating the processes impacting them. At the turn of the century, a wider approach emerged. In addition to focusing on watershed scale management, the integration of social, economic, and environmental issues was incorporated into management proposals by different authors. Lake Gallocanta case study is described and discussed as a paradigm of inland salt lake management. The status of inland salt lakes will improve in the future if land cover reparcelling, and rationale uses of water in the watershed are incorporated, considering adaptive practices to climate change impacts and a balanced provision of ecosystem services.

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Worldwide environmental threats to salt lakes

Cited by 4 publications

References 13 publications

Drying Lakes: A Review on the Applied Restoration Strategies and Health Conditions in Contiguous Areas

Drying Lakes: A Review on the Applied Restoration Strategies and Health Conditions in Contiguous Areas

Drying Lakes: A Review on The Health Conditions and Restoration Strategies

The Likely Status of Inland Salt Lake Ecosystems in 2050: Reminiscing and Revisiting Bill Williams

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