Mon Oct 13, F. Flechtner
• Sorted by Date • Sorted by Last Name of First Author •
Becker, Richard H., 2014. The Stalled Recovery of the Iraqi Marshes. Remote Sensing, 6(2):1260–1274, doi:10.3390/rs6021260.
• from the NASA Astrophysics Data System • by the DOI System •
@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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