For Lake Urmia, Climate Change May Mean Less Water

By on June 1, 2016
lake urmia

Lake Urmia in Iran is losing water availability. (Credit: Mehran Biparva)


Lake Urmia in Iran has been largely dried up in recent years, with a great deal of mismanagement to blame. But more threats are on the horizon, according to researchers at Wageningen University, who predict that climate change will impact the lake’s future water availability.

Their efforts to estimate Lake Urmia’s future water availability are detailed in the journal Science of The Total Environment. In the paper, they describe their approach, which depended largely on predicting water availability under two different climate scenarios using modeling.

In one scenario, assuming a low figure for greenhouse gases in the future, scientists found that water availability in the lake’s basin will likely decrease by 10 percent. In the other, guessing extreme atmospheric rises in greenhouse gases will take place, models showed that Lake Urmia’s water availability could go down by up to 27 percent.

Top image: Lake Urmia in Iran is losing water availability. (Credit: Mehran Biparva)

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