Environmental impacts of the 1991 Persian Gulf war: a remote sensing perspective

Environmental impact assessment of natural factors and non-natural disturbances on the ecosystems has been one of the key applications of the state-of-the-art remote sensing technologies. The 1991 Persian Gulf war, with smoke plumes and oil slicks in particular, was one of these significant disturbances in ecosystems. For the past eight years, remote sensing technologies have been widely used in the research on the environmental impacts of the war in the Gulf and other regions of the world. There is a compelling need to formulate a comprehensive and cohesive summary of the available scientific information. This review tries to meet this need by focusing on the environmental impacts of the 1991 Persian Gulf war on atmospheric, marine, and terrestrial environments of the Gulf region and its surrounding areas. Special attention has been paid to the applications of remote sensing data and methodologies in environmental impact assessment. A list of the available remotely sensed data sets for the periods before, during, and after the war are also presented