Lake Urmia
Lake Urmia | |
---|---|
Zarriné-Rūd, Simineh-Rūd, Mahabad River, Gadar River, Barandouz River, Shahar River, Nazlou River, Zola River, Kaftar Ali Chay, Aji Chay, Boyuk Chay, Rudkhaneh-ye Qal'eh Chay, Qobi Chay, Rudkhaneh-ye Mordaq, Leylan River; diversion from the Zab River | |
Primary outflows | none: all water entering the lake is lost through evaporation |
Basin countries | Iran |
Max. length | 140 km (87 mi) [1995] |
Max. width | 55 km (34 mi) [1995] |
Surface area | 2,917 km2 (1,126 sq mi) [2021-april][1] |
Average depth | 6 to 8 m (20 to 26 ft) [1910–2012][2] |
Max. depth | 13 to 15 m (43 to 49 ft) [1910–2012][2] |
Water volume | 5.5 km3 (1.3 cu mi) [2021][1] |
Salinity | 217–235 g L−1 Na–(Mg)–Cl–(SO4) brine [20th c.][3] 8–11% in spring, 26–28% in late autumn[4] |
Islands | 102 [1995] (see list) |
References | [5] |
Official name | Lake Urmia [or Orumiyeh] |
Designated | 23 June 1975 |
Reference no. | 38[6] |
Lake Urmia
By late 2017, the lake had shrunk to 10% of its former size (and 1/60 of water volume in 1998) due to persistent general drought in Iran, but also the damming of the local rivers that flow into it, and the pumping of groundwater from the surrounding area.[10] This dry spell was broken in 2019 and the lake is now filling up once again, due to both increased rain and water diversion from the Zab River under the Urmia Lake Research Programme.[11]
Lake Urmia, along with its approximately 102 (former) islands, is protected as a
Names and etymologies
Locally, the lake is referred to in Persian as Daryâče-ye Orumiye (دریاچهٔ ارومیه), in Azerbaijani as Urmu gölü (اۇرمۇ گؤلۆ). The traditional Armenian name is Kaputan tsov (Կապուտան ծով), literally "blue sea". Residents of Shahi Island refer to the lake in Azerbaijani as Daryā (دریا, meaning "Sea").[15][16][17]
Its Old Persian name was Chichast, meaning "glittering", a reference to the glittering mineral particles suspended in the water of the lake and found along its shores.[citation needed] The Greeks called it Spauta (Σπαῦτα), and also it was probably the same as the Μαρτιανὴ λίμνη of Ptolemy,[18] and in medieval times it came to be known as Kabuda (Kabodan) in Armenian geography,[19] from the word for "azure" in [knew it was[Persian language|Persian]], or kapuyt (կապույտ) in Armenian.
Archaeology and history
Se Girdan kurgans are located on the south shore of Lake Urmia. Some of them were excavated in 1968 and 1970 by O. Muscarella. They have now been redated to the second half of the 4th millennium, although originally they were thought to be much younger.[21]
One of the early mentions of Lake Urmia is from
In the last five hundred years the area around Lake Urmia has been home to Azerbaijanis, Kurds, Persians, Assyrians, and Armenians.
Chemistry
The main
The lake is divided into north and south, separated by the Urmia Lake Bridge and its associated causeway, which was completed in 2008. The bridge provides only a 1.5-kilometre (0.93 mi) gap in the embankment, allowing little exchange of water between the two sections. Due to drought and increased demands for agricultural water in the lake's basin, the salinity of the lake has risen to more than 300 g/L during recent years, and large areas of the lake bed have been desiccated.[23]
Ecology
Palaeoecology
Modern ecology
Based on the latest checklists of biodiversity at Lake Urmia in 2014 and 2016, it is home to 62 species of archaebacteria and bacteria, 42 species of microfungi, 20 species of phytoplankton, 311 species of plants, five species of mollusca, 226 species of birds, 27 species of amphibians and reptiles and 24 species of mammals (47 fossils have been recorded in the area).[25][26]
Lake Urmia is an internationally registered protected area as both a
A recent drought has significantly decreased the annual amount of water the lake receives. This in turn has increased the salinity of the lake's water, reducing its viability as home to thousands of migratory birds, including flamingo populations. The salinity has particularly increased in the half of the lake north of the Urmia Lake Bridge.
By virtue of its high
Falling level and increasing salinity
The lake is a major barrier between
Lake Urmia has been shrinking for a long time, with an annual evaporation rate of 0.6 to 1 m (24 to 39 in). Although measures are now being taken to reverse the trend,[33] the lake has shrunk by 60% and could disappear entirely.[33] Only 5% of the lake's water remains.[34]
On 2 August 2012, Muhammad-Javad Muhammadizadeh, the head of Iran's Environment Protection Organization, announced that
In July 2014, Iran President Hassan Rouhani approved plans for a 14 trillion rial program (over $500 million) in the first year of a recovery plan. The money was supposed to be used for water management, reducing farmers' water use, and environmental restoration. Several months earlier, in March 2014, Iran's Department of Environment and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) issued a plan to save the lake and the nearby wetland, which called for spending $225 million in the first year and $1.3 billion overall for restoration.[36]
Starting in 2016, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and Urmia Lake Restoration Program (ULRP) signed up to a project funded by the Government of Japan entitled "An Integrated Programme for Sustainable Water Resources Management in the Lake Urmia Basin" to support ULRP in its goal to restore Lake Urmia. The project set out a multi-disciplinary framework covering several key interrelated areas and aims to have five outputs: 1. An advanced water accounting (WA) system for the entire Lake Urmia basin; 2. A drought management system based on risk/vulnerability assessment and preparedness response for the basin; 3. A socio-economic livelihood programme with viable and sustainable alternatives to current agricultural activities upstream of the lake to reduce water consumption significantly while maintaining the income and livelihood of affected communities; 4. An integrated watershed management (WM) programme; A capacity development programme to strengthen stakeholders at different levels.
The Silveh Dam in Piranshahr County should be complete in 2015. Through a tunnel and canals it will transfer up to 121,700,000 m3 (98,700 acre⋅ft) of water annually from the Lavin River in the Little Zab basin to Lake Urmia basin.[37][38]
In 2015, president Hassan Rouhani's cabinet approved $660 million for improving irrigation systems, and steps to combat desertification.[10]
In September 2018, A working group tasked with reviving Lake Urmia has started to grow two types of plants to save the region from salt particles. The two plants are Nitraria or Karadagh and Tamarix or Shoorgaz, which are planted on the land of Jabal Kandi village in Urmia County, to slow down the wind that brings with itself the salt particles.[39]
Environmental protests
The prospect that Lake Urmia might dry up entirely has drawn protests in Iran and abroad, directed at both the regional and national governments. Protests flared in late August 2011 after the Iranian parliament voted not to provide funds to channel water from the Aras River to raise the lake level.[40][41] Apparently, parliament proposed instead to relocate people living around Urmia Lake.[41]
More than 30 activists were detained on 24 August 2011 during an
Further demonstrations took place in the streets of
The effect of climate change on the lake, has been extensively covered by an Iranian photojournalist Solmaz Daryani.[48][49][50][51][52]
Islands
Lake Urmia had approximately 102 islands.[53] Shahi Island was historically the lake's largest. However, it became a peninsula connected to the eastern shore when the lake level dropped.[3][54]
Shahi Island is the burial place of both
Basin rivers
Lake Urmia is fed by 13 permanent rivers and many small springs, as well as rainfall directly into the lake.[3] Nearly half the inflow comes from the Zarrineh River and Simineh River.[3] There is no outflow from the lake so water is only lost through evaporation.[3]
In popular culture
Lake Urmia was the setting of the Iranian film The White Meadows (2009).[citation needed]
Urmia Lake Research Programme
Urmia Lake Restoration Program (ULRP) by Sharif University of Technology with the following goals:[56]
- Documenting the experiences and lessons learned from the cooperation of the academic community in various stages of studying and implementing solutions to a national environmental challenge in the country.
See also
References
- ^ a b Urmia Lake Research Program. Lake Urmia’s surface increased by over 1500 km2 April 11, 2021.
- ^ a b 'Urmia, Lake'. Encyclopedia Iranica
- ^ S2CID 128970562.
- ^ Urmia Lake. 2012. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Retrieved 14 August 2015, from https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/619901/Lake-Urmia
- ^ "Lake Urmia's surface increased by over 1500 km²". Tehran Times. 11 April 2021.
- ^ "Lake Urmia [or Orumiyeh]". Ramsar Sites Information Service. Retrieved 25 April 2018.
- ISBN 0-87586-191-1
- ^ E. J. Brill's first encyclopaedia of Islam, 1913–1936, vol. 7, page 1037 citing Strabo and Ptolemy.
- ^ "Britanica". Britannica.com. Retrieved 4 September 2011.
- ^ PMID 26339009.
- ^ Dudley, Dominic. "Iran's Lake Urmia: How A Dying Salt Lake Is Being Brought Back From The Brink". Forbes. Retrieved 29 May 2020.
- ^ Richard Nelson Frye, The history of ancient Iran, München (1984), 48–49
- ^ The Proto-Indoaryans, by T. Burrow, The Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland, No. 2 (1973), pp. 123–140, published by: Cambridge University Press, see 139
- ^ "Search Entry". www.assyrianlanguages.org. Retrieved 23 November 2020.
- ^ Amurian, A.; Kasheff, M. (15 December 1986). "Armenians of modern Iran". Encyclopædia Iranica. Archived from the original on 26 October 2018. Retrieved 2 May 2016.
Urmia (class. Arm. Kaputan) ...
- ^ Russell, James R. (1987). Zoroastrianism in Armenia. Harvard University. p. 430.
Urmia Lake, called Kaputan cov by Arm. geographers...
- ^ "Armenian Highland". armin.am. Institute for Armenian Studies of Yerevan State University.
In the Armenian Highland there are numerous lakes and ponds. The most majors are Kaputan (Urmia), Van and Sevan.
- ^ Dictionary of Greek and Roman Geography (1854), Spauta
- Shahnama.
- ^ C. A. Burney, Excavations at Yanik Tepe, North-West-Iran, Iraq 23, 1961, pp. 138ff.
- ^ O. W. Muscarella, "The Chronology and Culture of Se Girdan: Phase III", Ancient Civilizations from Scythia to Siberia 9/1-2, 2003, pp. 117-31
- ^ cf. Skjærvø, Prods Oktor (2006), "Iran, vi(1). Earliest Evidence", Encyclopaedia Iranica, Vol. 13
- ^ Alireza Asem; Fereidun Mohebbi; Reza Ahmadi (2012). "Drought in Urmia Lake, the largest natural habitat of brine shrimp Artemia" (PDF). World Aquaculture. 43: 36–38. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 April 2016. Retrieved 17 May 2013.
- ^ a b "UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Directory".
- doi:10.3390/d6010102.
- doi:10.3390/d8010006.
- ^ "Lake Urmia [or Orumiyeh]". Ramsar Sites Information Service. Retrieved 31 October 2023.
- ^ "ProtectedPlanet - Urumieh lake". Archived from the original on 23 March 2019. Retrieved 24 March 2015.
- ^ C. Michael Hogan. 2011. Urmia Lake. Eds. P. Saundry & C. J.Cleveland. Encyclopedia of Earth. National Council for Science and the Environment. Washington, D.C.
- ^ Critical condition of Artemia urmiana and possibility of extinction
- S2CID 25998873.
- ^ "Iran's East and West Azerbaijan Provinces Connected by Lake Orumiyeh Bridge". Payvand.com. Archived from the original on 6 September 2022. Retrieved 4 September 2011.
- ^ a b Karmi N. Iran's largest lake turning to salt. Associated Press 25 May 2011. https://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110525/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iran_environmental_disaster/print
- ^ Erdbrink, Thomas (30 January 2014). "Its Great Lake Shriveled, Iran Confronts Crisis of Water Supply". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 31 January 2014. Retrieved 11 May 2017.
{{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) - ^ "Armenia to help Iran save drying lake Oroumiyeh". Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 7 August 2012.
- ^ "Iran to spend $500 million to save shrunken Lake Urmia". newscientist.com. 4 July 2014.
- ^ "Completed by the end of the 94 dams Silveh Piranshahr" (in Persian). Kurd Press. 23 August 2014. Archived from the original on 20 January 2015. Retrieved 20 January 2015.
- ^ "Silveh Dam and Irrigation and Drainage" (in Persian). Omran Iran - Deputy Governor of West Azerbaijan. Archived from the original on 20 January 2015. Retrieved 20 January 2015.
- ^ "Iran Using Plants to Fight Dust Pollution in Lake Urmia". 28 September 2018.
- ^ a b c d Mackey, Robert (30 August 2011). "Protests in Iran Over Disappearing Lake". The New York Times. Iran. Retrieved 4 September 2011.
- ^ RFE/RL. 26 August 2011. Retrieved 12 November 2015.
- ^ a b c "Iranian greens fear disaster as Lake Orumieh shrinks". The Guardian. London. 5 September 2011.
- ^ "Rally protesting Iran over Urmia Lake turns violent". Hurriyet Daily News. 1 September 2011. Retrieved 4 September 2011.
- ^ "Iranian Protest Urges Help for Shrinking Lake". San Francisco Chronicle. 30 August 2011. Retrieved 4 September 2011.
- ^ "Azeri Turks in Ankara protest Urmia Lake drying up". todayszaman.com. Archived from the original on 6 September 2011. Retrieved 4 September 2011.
- ^ "Iran police break up environmental protests". euronews.net. 4 September 2011. Retrieved 4 September 2011.[permanent dead link]
- ^ "Iran arrests saltwater lake protesters". BBC. 4 September 2011. Retrieved 4 September 2011.
- ^ Daryani, Solmaz. "A reflection on how climate change altered Lake Urmia". The Caravan. Retrieved 7 December 2019.
- ^ "Final winners of IdeasTap and Magnum Photos documentary photography award announced". British Journal of Photography. 22 December 2015. Retrieved 7 December 2019.
- ^ Daryani, Solmaz. "Troubled Waters". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 27 February 2020.
- ^ "The Eyes of Earth". emerge - Magazin für jungen Fotojournalismus (in German). 11 June 2018. Retrieved 27 February 2020.
- ^ "Why is the largest lake in the Middle East drying up?". english.alarabiya.net. 17 March 2018. Retrieved 27 February 2020.
- ^ List from: Farahang-e Joghrafiyayi-e shahrestânhâ-ye Keshvar (Shahrestân-e Orumiyeh), Tehran 1379 Hs.
- doi:10.3390/d6010102.
- JSTOR 43193015.
- ^ "درباره ما". طرح تحقیقاتی دریاچه ارومیه (in Persian). Retrieved 19 May 2023.
External links
- (in English) Urmia official website in English
- Iranica Encyclopedia: Eckhart Ehlers, "Lake Urmia", 2013
- Encyclopedia of Earth: C. Michael Hogan, "Lake Urmia", 2011
- Saline Systems; Urmia Salt Lake, Iran Archived 21 August 2011 at the Wayback Machine
- Profile at UNESCO Biosphere Reserve Directory
- Iran's Environmental Ticking Bomb Archived 29 November 2011 at the Wayback Machine
- Landsat - Drying of Lake Urmia, Iran, Google Earth Engine