Groundwater Depletion In Iran At Crisis Point; 3.5% Of The Whole Country Subsiding; Some Areas Dropping One Foot/Year

[hatrack]

Groundwater depletion in Iran is reaching crisis point, according to a study published this year. Satellite images reveal vast cracks and sinkholes appearing, and large areas of land subsiding at a rate of more than 10cm a year, as a result of excessive groundwater extraction. It could take hundreds to thousands of years before this water is replenished, researchers say.

Mahmud Haghighi and Mahdi Motagh from Leibniz University in Germany analysed satellite data gathered between 2014 and 2020 to assess the impact of groundwater extraction across Iran. Their results, published in Science Advances, showed that 3.5% of the country’s area is subsiding, with extraction of groundwater for irrigation the primary cause.

The subsidence is affecting infrastructure such as airports, roads and railways. The most severe impact is being felt in Kerman province in the south-east of the country, Iran’s pistachio-producing region, where subsidence rates of more than 35cm a year have been recorded.

Iran’s subsidence rates rank among the highest in the world and may be irreversible in some regions where aquifers have completely collapsed.

EDIT

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2024/sep/25/terrawatch-sinkholes-iran-groundwater-depletion-crisis

EDIT

[jfz9580m]

1. That sounds dire

Articles dating back many years discuss it:

https://www.bbc.com/news/58012290

"But the problem is rooted in decades of bad management, poor environmental governance and lack of foresight, and not getting prepared for a situation like this."

The entire planet has a “poor environmental governance” problem…Not that it is as important as bs of the day..ie which celebrity or sports star did what..

[OKIsItJustMe]

3. Dire, but, as you suggest, not unanticipated

https://gracefo.jpl.nasa.gov/resources/48/map-of-groundwater-storage-trends-for-earths-37-largest-aquifers/

[jfz9580m]

4. We are definitely living in interesting times

I just saw this..

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-21/major-climate-agencies-call-global-emissions-peak/104016030

I just don’t think we will do more than move laterally with our ecological crises though without getting that we will only be swopping out one ecological crisis for another if we don’t get how unrealistic limitless growth is on a finite planet.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jun/08/the-planets-economist-has-kate-raworth-found-a-model-for-sustainable-living


Smaller population sizes and less/smarter (actually smarter not smarter sloganeering) consumption are key.

This is why I find maximalist billionaires like Musk and Vinod Khosla kinda extra creepy as investors in green tech..people who think that neither overpopulation nor overconsumption are problems. As long as they get to do whatever they want to sans any regulation.

(Regulation is anathema to our corrupted billionaire class which is why the likes of Vinod Khosla and Reid Hoffman are also attacking progressives in the Biden administration like Lina Khan).

Musk at least also buys into eugenics.

[OKIsItJustMe]

5. See also "Gilded Age"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gilded_Age

[jfz9580m]

6. Thanks :).nt

[riversedge]

2. k and r.

[hunter]

7. They have much in common with the U.S.A. American West.

.

[OKIsItJustMe]

8. Yes, indeed, aquifers are in trouble in many, many places...

In Iran’s case, it’s virtually the entire country!

https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2024221118

Anthropogenic depletion of Iran’s aquifers

…

June 14, 2021
118 (25) e2024221118

…


Spatial distribution of annual average EC (A) and changes in annual average EC from 2002 to 2015 (B). Measured annual average EC indicates very high salinity hazard (EC more than 2,250 µS/cm) in 16 out of 30 subbasins. Also, changes in annual average EC were positive (i.e., deteriorating; red bars) in almost all subbasins (except for the water-rich Anzali and Haraz subbasins; blue bars).

…