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Lake Urmia Crisis and Roadmap for Ecological

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Lake Urmia Crisis and Roadmap for Ecological LAKE URMIA CRISIS AND ROADMAP FOR ECOLOGICAL RESTORATION OF LAKE URMIA THREE PAPERS SUBMITTED BY Brad Marden Philip Micklin Wayne Wurtsbaugh TO UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM IRANIAN DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT AND KALANTARI COMMISSION INTERNATIONAL TECHNICAL WETLANDS ROUND TABLE TEHRAN, IRAN MARCH 16-18, 2014 Executive Summary and Biography of Author Philip Micklin Biography: Philip Micklin has focused on water management issues in the former USSR since the late 1960s. He was a geography professor at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo for 30 years before retiring in 1999. He received the University’s highest academic award in 1992, when named Distinguished Academic Scholar. Professor Micklin is particularly interested in the human induced desiccation of the Aral Sea and its environmental and human consequences as well as the related problems of water sharing and water management in and among the new, independent states of Central Asia. Dr. Micklin has visited and lived in the former USSR and Central Asia many times over the past 47 years: conducting research, attending conferences and working for the United Nations and U.S. Government. He has participated in several expeditions to the Aral Sea. He is chief editor and contributed 8 chapters to a new book on the Aral Sea published by Springer in January 2014. He just returned from Iran to which he had been invited to help with developing a rescue program for a large lake that is undergoing human induced drying. Summary: The Aral Sea is a terminal Lake lying amidst the vast deserts of Central Asia. Its drainage basin encompasses more than two million km2. At 67,500 km2 in 1960, the Aral Sea was the world's fourth largest inland water body in terms of surface area. The sea supported a major fishery and functioned as a key regional transportation route. The extensive deltas of the Syr and Amu, the seas two influent rivers, sustained a diversity of flora and fauna as well as irrigated agriculture, animal husbandry, hunting and trapping, fishing, and harvesting of reeds. Since 1960, the Aral has undergone rapid desiccation and salinization, overwhelming the result of unsustainable expansion of irrigation that dried up its two tributary rivers. The desiccation of the Aral Sea has had severe negative impacts. The vibrant commercial fishing industry ended in the early 1980s as the indigenous species that provided the basis for the fishery disappeared from rising salinity. The rich ecosystems of the Amu and Syr rivers have suffered considerable harm. Strong winds blow sand, salt and dust from the dried bottom of the Aral Sea onto surrounding lands causing harm to natural vegetation, crops, people and wild and domestic animals. However, it is possible to repair some the damage done to this water body. The former northern part of the Aral has been separated from the former southern part of the Sea by a dike and dam. This has led to a rise of the level and lowering of salinity that has allowed native fishes to return to this part of the sea and produced a flourishing fishing industry. The deltas of the two rivers have also received remediation measures to partially preserve their ecological and economic values. It is also possible to implement projects to preserve some parts of the southern (Large) Aral Sea, although these need much further environmental and economic analysis. What are the general lessons for Lake Urmia revival from the Aral experience? Be cautious with large-scale interference in the natural environment and try to understand the range and nature of both positive and negative consequences prior to proceeding with projects. Remediation projects should be staged, adjustable to changing conditions, and incorporate information feedback mechanisms based on careful research and monitoring. Preserve biological refugia where species can be preserved when natural environments deteriorate (e.g., Aral Sea and Lake Urmia) and which can serve to replenish the biological character of the larger environment when conditions there improve. Don’t give up on a degraded water body. Nature is resilient and with the proper effort and concern can be at least partially restored. Executive Summary and Biography of Author Wayne Wurtsbaugh Biography: Dr. Wayne Wurtsbaugh is a professor at Utah State University (USA) where he has taught limnology and water quality for 30 years. He has done aquatic research in Peru, Spain, Germany, Switzerland, and on two major salt lakes—Mar Chiquita in Argentina and the Great Salt Lake in Utah. Summary of Report: The area and volume of Lake Urmia, like all salt lakes, is balanced by the amount of inflowing water. For hundreds and perhaps thousands of years, the lake was in balance with its water supply from the watershed, but recent increases in agricultural, industrial and municipal water withdrawals have disturbed the balance and the lake is drying up. Consequently, the most urgent need is to restore water to the lake. Other priorities include: (1) Making a careful bathymetric map so that the area and volume of the lake can be determined at any lake level. Without this information, managers are only guessing at the lake size and salinity if a given amount of water is available for its restoration. (2) Limnological monitoring of physical, chemical and biological parameters needs to be instituted as soon as possible. Parameters to be measured would include salinity, temperature, ionic composition, nutrients, phytoplankton biomass, Artemia populations, and several other metrics. This should be measured at 2-4 week intervals at several stations in the lake. Bird populations should be monitored twice a year. (3) Describing and prioritizing the organisms that people want to protect, and determining the lake levels and salinities that will be necessary to maintain them. With the limited amount of water that will be available, it will not be possible to protect all species, so careful consideration must be made of which ones are most important. The needs of the organisms must then be linked to water management. For example, the target elevation of 1274 m given in the current management plan will not likely provide a low enough salinity for Artemia, and hence birds like flamingos will not return to the lake. (4) It will be useful to describe different “beneficial uses” for various parts of the lake. These could include such things as ‘dust control’, ‘Artemia production’, ‘recreation’, ‘minerals production’. The exact beneficial uses will need to be determined by the population in the basin and the rest of Iran. The situation at Lake Urmia is dire and managers can hope for the best (a wet cycle returns), but they must plan for the worst. This should include planning dust control measures to minimize health problems in the surrounding cities, and crop damage. Preserving a minimal amount of biodiversity in the delta wetlands might be accomplished by diking to retain the freshwater for longer periods. Diked areas for brine shrimp can also be considered, but the long-term consequences of lake shrinkage and salt movements must be taken into consideration. Executive Summary and Biography of Author Brad Marden Biography: Brad Marden is Research Coordinator for Great Salt Lake Artemia, Inc., Executive Manager of Parliament Fisheries Inc. and he is adjunct professor of Health Sciences and teaches Human Anatomy and Physiology at Weber State University. Brad has done over 200 detailed ecological studies of the Great Salt Lake over the past 14 years. He has also directed ecological research projects on salt lakes in Siberia (Altai, Kurgan, Tyumen, and Omsk regions), Kazakhstan (Pavlodar region and Aral Sea), Uzbekistan (Aral Sea), Turkmenistan (Karabogoz Gol, Caspian Sea) from 1999 to 2014. Brad served for 11 years on the Great Salt Lake Technical Advisory Group, Division of Wildlife Resources, Department of Natural Resources, State of Utah. He was a member of the Scientific Advisory Panel for the Development of a Selenium Standard for the Open Waters of the Great Salt Lake. He was Principal Research Scientist on NATO Science for Peace projects in Central Asia/Uzbekistan and Russia 2002-2007. Brad recently visited Iran for a second time as a participant in the 32nd National, 1st International, Geosciences Congress: Lake Urmia Rescue and to assist with the rescue program for Lake Urmia. Summary of Report The crisis in Lake Urmia is clearly a disaster of hemispheric proportions. It is absolutely imperative to find solutions quickly and effectively and to proceed down a logical pathway for the restoration of Lake Urmia. The restoration process should be Iranian designed, engineered, and implemented. It should emphasize community involvement and widespread support among the populace. International experts can provide value for the restoration project and can save time and expense by applying knowledge learned from resource management experiences and ecological restoration projects in similar biotopes. The major problem is clearly one of water supply and demand. Initial efforts need to focus on the watershed and accurate assessments of the water supply, demand, demographics, and external influences on water availability—such as climate. Lessons learned from watershed (a.k.a. catchment area) assessment and water resources management experience from the Great Salt Lake, Utah, USA (GSL) can be translated into the existing water resource plan for the Lake Urmia catchment area. Water usage in the Lake Urmia catchment area needs a more rigorous assessment (especially illegal vs legal usages and diversions), and stricter regulations need to be imposed. Community involvement in water conservation should be emphasized. Improvement in the return of water to Lake Urmia allows the next sequence of priority projects be implemented. Embayments should be used to maximize the efficient use of returned water and can be used to return the many beneficial uses formerly performed by a much larger Lake Urmia.
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