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The Stalled Recovery of the Iraqi Marshes

Becker, Richard H., 2014. The Stalled Recovery of the Iraqi Marshes. Remote Sensing, 6(2):1260–1274, doi:10.3390/rs6021260.

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@ARTICLE{2014RemS....6.1260B,
       author = {{Becker}, Richard H.},
        title = "{The Stalled Recovery of the Iraqi Marshes}",
      journal = {Remote Sensing},
     keywords = {Iraqi marshes, GRACE, MODIS, Tigris, Euphrates, climate},
         year = 2014,
        month = jan,
       volume = {6},
       number = {2},
        pages = {1260-1274},
     abstract = "{The Iraqi (Mesopotamian) Marshes, an extensive wetlands system in Iraq,
        has been heavily impacted by both human and climate forces over
        the past decades. In the period leading up to the Second Gulf
        War in 2002, the marshlands were shrinking due to both a policy
        of draining and water diversion in Iraq and construction of dams
        upstream on the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Following the war
        through 2006, this trend was reversed as the diversions were
        removed and active draining stopped. A combination of MODIS and
        GRACE datasets were used to determine the change in surface
        water area (SWA) in the marshes, marshland extent and change in
        mass both upriver in the Tigris and Euphrates watersheds and in
        the marshlands. Results suggest that the post war dam removal
        and decreased pumping in 2003 provided only temporary respite
        for the marshlands (2003-2006 SWA: 1,477 km$^{2}$ increase
        (600\%), water equivalent depth (WED): +2.0 cm/yr.; 2006-2009:
        -860 km$^{2}$ (-41\%) WED: -3.9 cm/yr.). Unlike in the period
        2003-2006, from 2006 forward the mass variations in the marshes
        are highly correlated with those in the upper and middle
        watershed (R = 0.86 and 0.92 respectively), suggesting that any
        recovery due to that removal is complete, and that all future
        changes are tied more strongly to any climate changes that will
        affect recharge in the upper Tigris-Euphrates system.
        Precipitation changes in the watershed show a reduction of an
        average of 15\% below the 15 yr mean in 2007-2011 This
        corresponds with published ensemble predictions for the
        2071-2099 time period, that suggested similar marshland
        shrinkage should be expected in that time period.}",
          doi = {10.3390/rs6021260},
       adsurl = {https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2014RemS....6.1260B},
      adsnote = {Provided by the SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System}
}

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