The Mesopotamian marshlands

Abstract

The Mesopotamian marshlands, the largest wetland in the Middle East and one ofthe most outstanding in the world have been lost mainly as a result of drainage anddamming. The cause of the decline is mainly as a result of damming upstream as well asdrainage schemes since the 1970s. The Tigris and the Euphrates are amongst the mostintensively dammed rivers in the world. In the past 40 years, the two rivers have beenfragmented by the construction of more than 30 large dams, whose storage capacity isseveral times greater than the volume of both rivers. Satellite images provide hardevidence that the once extensive marshlands have dried-up and regressed into desert,with vast stretches salt encrusted. Recent satellite imagery shows only limited areas ofthe marshlands have been reclaimed. The objected of this study was to classify a landcover methodology through digital analysis of historical and new satellite data. Twosatellite images, Landsat (TM) and MODIS of AL-Kurmashia Marsh south of Iraqacquired in 2003 (before reflooded) and 2005 (after reflooded).