Department of Geological Sciences, UNC, 104 South Road, Mitchell Hall room 309, Campus Box #3315, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599-3315, USA.
Department of Geography, UNC, Carolina Hall room 211, Campus Box #3200, Chapel Hill, NC, 27599-3200, USA.
Ambio. 2019 Mar;48(3):264-279. doi: 10.1007/s13280-018-1073-4. Epub 2018 Jul 12.
The fast-paced conflicts in the Middle East can disrupt management and supply of water, particularly on dams and barrages along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers that have experienced threats or changes in sovereignty. Water supply is also under pressure from upstream water management, drought, and structural decline. In this research, we used a satellite-based algorithm, the normalized difference water index (NDWI), to monitor changes in the extent of surface reservoirs (1985-present). We compared the timeline of reservoir fluctuations with the timeline of events related to conflicts, droughts, and dam management. Our results show that the most sudden changes in water supply occurred during events related to conflict, but conflict was not often a cause of the greatest absolute changes to reservoir area. Though not as precise as on-the-ground information, satellite data can give insights to water supply when conflict has disrupted the flow of information or restricted on-the-ground data collection.
中东地区快节奏的冲突会扰乱水的管理和供应，特别是在底格里斯河和幼发拉底河上的大坝和堰遭到威胁或主权发生变化时。供水还面临着来自上游水资源管理、干旱和结构衰退的压力。在这项研究中，我们使用了一种基于卫星的算法，归一化差异水体指数（NDWI），来监测地表水库范围的变化（1985 年至今）。我们将水库波动的时间线与与冲突、干旱和大坝管理相关的事件的时间线进行了比较。我们的研究结果表明，供水最突然的变化发生在与冲突相关的事件期间，但冲突并不经常是导致水库面积绝对变化最大的原因。尽管卫星数据不如实地信息精确，但在冲突扰乱了信息流或限制了实地数据收集时，卫星数据可以为供水提供一些见解。
