Mesopotamian Marshlands Database
Description of study area and problem
The landscape of Iraq has witnessed many changes over the past two to three decades (e.g., Beaumont, 1996). The areas occupied by the marshlands have been affected the most, with the largest changes occurring in the 1990’s with the implementation of the Southern Anatolian Project in Turkey (Figure 2; left) and the rerouting of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in Iraq around the marshlands (Figure 2; right) using a complex system of diversion canals (Fig. 2: Mother of the Battles River, Third River, Glory River, Loyalty to the Leader Canal, etc.). The Southern Anatolian Project currently consists of 22 dams, five of which (Ataturk, Karakaya, Birecik, Batman, and Dicle) are shown on Figure 2, 25 irrigation projects, and 19 hydroelectric plants (MacQuarrie, 2004). The marshlands have been on the decline; in some cases they have been replaced by arable lands, in others they have unfortunately been turned into desiccated salinized land. Until the 1970’s, the Mesopotamian marshlands extended over an area 15,000 – 20,000 km2 in central and southern Iraq (UNEP, 2001). By 2002, the Central and Al Hammar marshlands had almost entirely disappeared, where its land cover has transformed into bare land and salt crusts; while only one third of the Hawr Al Hawizeh marshlands remain (Fig. 1). These observed land cover and land use changes (LCLUC) over the Mesopotamian marshes largely reflect the impacts of large engineering projects, some of which were implemented in Iraq and others in the neighboring upstream countries (Fig.2). For example, at the end of the 1991 Gulf War, Iraq embarked on a massive engineering project to drain the marshlands through a network of drainage canals. It is not only the drainage systems that were responsible for the devastation of the marshlands; dams upstream of the marshlands also magnified the effects of the drainage projects. Over 30 major dams have been constructed to store water and to tame the flow of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers (Aydogu, 2000). In 1989, Turkey launched an integrated regional development project that would develop a series of dams upstream on both the Euphrates and the Tigris that could potentially reduce the flow of the Euphrates in Iraq by as much as 80%.
Figure 2.
Left: These are the major Dams and
barrages located within the Tigris and
Currently, the marshland’s area has increased from 745 km2 in 2002 to 3983 km2 in 2005. This is a 535% increase in surface area from 2002. Satellite images taken in May of 2003 and later demonstrate these changes. Streams which have been dry for quite some time come back to life and formerly dry areas have become inundated with water again. These positive developments are largely due to piecemeal interventions that have led to the modifications of control structures and earthworks by locals, and the coalition forces as well. The projects of interest here that have been modified are the Crown of Battles river (COB), Loyalty to the Leader Canal (LTL), Prosperity River, and the Mother of Battles river (MOB) to name a few. These drainage canals were dammed at the inflow point to allow the water to continue flow as it naturally would into the marshes (IMET, 2004). The US Agency for International Development (USAID) is currently organizing and supporting efforts to translate these ad-hoc efforts into long-term sustainable remedial efforts (Basgall, 2003)