Study on the Role of Water Resource Management on Dust Storm Intensification in West Asia and Iran

Historically arid and semi-arid climate of the West Asia is the main cause of dust storm occurrence in the region, but its intensification during last 15 years was considered as a big challenge resulted to some regional technical and political gathering for establishing some regional cooperation for combatting dust storm. In this paper, it is attempted to review the main causes of dust storm intensification during recent decade. Through research and study reports and data analysis, it is well defined that prolonged drought and inadequate water resourcen management could be the main causes of dust storm intensification in recent decade. In traditional water allocation system in Iran, the constant water is allocated to agriculture, industry and civil consumption and no adjustment in allocation water volume based on drought severity is considered. Therefore, continuous and long period of drought (around 15 years) has resulted to drastic reduction of vegetation cover of rangelands, abandoned agricultural land, drying wetlands and as the results intensifying of dust storm in the region. Beside the effect of long drought, lack of attention to integrated watershed and water management in some large basin in the region has resulted to the serious negative effects on water resource in low lands and drying of many wetlands in Mesopotamia at west in Iraq and Iran and international wetland on the borderline of Iran and Afghanistan at east. It is reported that many dust storm events have initiated from dried marshland of Mesopotamia and Hamoon Lake in recent decades. For combatting sand and dust storm, it is essential to revise the IWRM system in the region at the first step. At the second step, the source of dust storm should be rehabilitated using experienced method such as mulching and plantation to prevent desertification and dust loading during windy seasons.