Inland Saline Wetlandscapes

Abstract

Wetland ecosystems are one of the highly productive ecosystems in the world. These ecosystems have been deteriorating at a faster rate. Ramsar Convention is putting enormous effort to protect, maintain, and restore these ecosystems. Currently, the fourth phase of Strategic Plans of Ramsar Convention is going on, in which saline wetlandscapes can play vital role to attain 19 targets of this plan. In India there are 27 Ramsar sites in all the biogeographic zones; however, research work has been carried out in the past five years in only eight Ramsar sites. Currently, four years are available for the strategic plans to encourage more wetland researches. The chapter presents a case study of Sambhar Salt Lake, a Ramsar site of India that is on the verge of extinction. Normalized Difference Water Index has been calculated for three decades in 1992, 2009, and 2019, revealing the declining phases of the lake.