Lake Urmia

Lake Urmia is a hypersaline lake in northwestern Iran. Once among the Middle East’s largest lakes, it has shrunk severely through drought and human water diversion.

Lake Urmia Basin: The drainage basin whose rivers and runoff feed Lake Urmia in northwestern Iran. The lake’s water balance depends on precipitation, withdrawals, and runoff across this basin.
Artemia urmiana: A brine shrimp species endemic to Lake Urmia and adapted to its saline waters. Its habitat contracts as salinity and lake area change.
Endorheic basin: A drainage basin that has no outlet to the sea, so water leaves mainly through evaporation or seepage. Lake Urmia’s closed basin concentrates dissolved salts as water evaporates.
Landsat program: A series of Earth-observing satellite missions operated by NASA and the U.S. Geological Survey since 1972. Landsat imagery documents changes in Lake Urmia’s surface area over decades.
Environmental flow: A river flow regime designed to sustain ecosystems and the human livelihoods that depend on them. The lake’s recovery requires decisions about how much river water must reach it.
Water diversion: The rerouting or withdrawal of water from rivers and other sources for human use. Dams and irrigation withdrawals reduce inflow to Lake Urmia.
Phalacrocorax pygmeus: The pygmy cormorant, a small waterbird found across parts of Europe and western Asia. Lake Urmia’s wetlands and islands form habitat within a wider regional bird network.
Zagros Mountains: A mountain range extending across western Iran and neighboring parts of Iraq and Turkey. The Zagros region helps shape the broader topography and climate affecting western Iran’s drainage.
Remote sensing: The collection of information about objects or areas from a distance, commonly using satellites or aircraft. Satellite observations track the lake’s changing extent and surrounding land cover.
Water scarcity in Iran: A persistent shortage of available water across Iran, driven by climate, demand, and water-management pressures. Restoration competes with agricultural and urban demands in a water-stressed country.

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