Hydrography of shrinking Urmia Lake bed and studying its change from 2014 to 2018

Session: Poster session

Mahdi Akbari, Urmia Lake Restoration Committee in Sharif University of Technology, [email protected]
Massoud Tajrishy, Sharif University of Technology, [email protected]

Abstract

Urmia Lake is the largest lake in Iran and one of the most saline ones in the world. Since 1998, it has started to shrink and lost 30 billion cubic meter water (almost 95 percent). Over saturation condition (about 500 gr/l) has caused many concerns about the lake's water capacity due to sedimentation. The Urmia Lake water capacity and its bed elevation changes during last four years were investigated in this research. First, the bathymetries of the lake have been produced for 2014 and 2016 by applying Remote Sensing and ground-based data. Then, the elevation of lake's bed was measured in 2018 at 6600 points through hydrography (by ultra-sonic waves), as well as terrain survey. Finally, the changes of the bed were evaluated with the recent observed data in comparison with bathymetries. It is concluded that bed elevation in 2016 was higher comparing to 2014 because of sedimentation, but in Jan. 2018 it returned to the status in 2014 which means the water depth has increased during last two years. Also results show by allocating the ecological water, the sediments of the bed are possible to be dissolved, therefore water capacity can be increased. Urmia Lake is the largest lake

1. Keyword
water level fluctuations

3. Keyword
wetlands

4. Additional Keyword
Bathymetry

5. Additional Keyword
Bed elevation change

6. Additional Keyword
Urmia Lake