Mesopotamian Ecosystem Destruction

  • Credit

    NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

Landsat Witnesses the Destruction of Mesopotamian Ecosystem

In one of the greatest ecological disasters of our time, the ancient marshlands of Mesopotamia are systematically being converted to dry salt flats as a result of human mismanagement of the region's water resources.Landsat satellite imagery reveals that in the last 10 years, wetlands that once covered as much as 20,000 square km in parts of Iraq and Iran have been reduced to a small fraction of their original size. The authors of a new report released by the United Nations Environment Programme's (UNEP) at the 11th Stockholm Water Symposium on August 13, 2001, warn that the marshlands could completely disappear within the next 3-5 years unless dramatic steps are taken immediately to reverse the damage being done. The UNEP Executive Director described the wetlands' condition as 'a major environmental catastrophe that will be remembered as one of humanity's worst engineered disasters.' He noted that 'the tragic loss of this rare wetland has occurred in approximately the same period since world leaders pledged to safeguard the environment at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (the Earth Summit) held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992.' Regarded by historians as one of the cradles of civilization, the Mesopotamian Fertile Crescent has supported Marsh Arab society for millennia. But through the damming and siphoning off of waters from the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, the countries of Iran, Iraq, Turkey, and Syria have decimated the ecosystem and, with it, a culture rooted in the dawn of human history (dating back to ancient Sumeria about 5,000 years ago).

Mesopotamia 1973

Metadata

  • Sensor

  • Animation ID

    2210

  • Video ID

    SVS2001-0005

  • Start Timecode

    01:06:04:00

  • End Timecode

    01:07:11:17

  • Animator

    Lori Perkins

  • Studio

    SVS

  • Visualization Date

    2000/08/14

  • Scientist

    Hassan Partow (UNEP)

  • Citation

    mesopotamia.pdf

  • Datasets

    Political boundaries

  • Keywords

    Mesopotamia, Ecosystem, GCMD--Location--Iraq, GCMD--Location--Iran, GCMD--Location--Turkey, GCMD--Location--Syria, Marsh, Marshland, Desertification

  • DLESE Subject

    Human geography, Ecology, Hydrology

  • Data Date

    May 1973, March 2000, May 2000

  • Story URL

    http://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a002200/a002210/Mesopotamia_v2.html

  • Animation Type

    Regular