Characterization of Hydrologic Sand and Dust Storm Sources in the Middle East

Abstract

Due to diverse hydroclimatic conditions and human interventions, the Middle East hosts a variety of active sources of sand and dust storms (SDS). Discrimination of different types of SDS sources is the most important factor for adopting optimal mitigation measures to combat SDS. This study employed a binary mask-based modeling framework to identify Middle East SDS sources. Accordingly, using time series of remotely sensed data of land surface and atmospheric aerosol parameters, SDS sources covering an area of 1 million Km2 were identified with an overall accuracy of 82.6%. Considering the type of land use and spatial-temporal changes in water bodies, SDS sources were categorized into seven types in terms of origin. Desert sources have the largest share (>79%), whereas hydrologic sources accounted for about 8.4%. The results showed that water bodies had a declining trend after 2000. The occurrence of two severe drought periods in 2000–2001 and 2007–2012 led to a 52% decrease in water bodies and a 14–37% increase in SDS emission compared to the pre-2000 period. The latter drought period also led to a sharp decrease in groundwater resources across the region. Our results revealed that natural circumstances and drought actively contribute to the depletion of water resources that led to the formation of SDS sources in the Middle East, while the role of anthropogenic factors is predominant in the case of hydrologic SDS sources.