Javidan et al. (2025) The role of climatic and anthropogenic factors in drying up of lakes

Identification

• Journal: Elsevier eBooks
• Year: 2025
• Date: 2025-11-29
• Authors: Raana Javidan, Narges Javidan, Farnoush Mohammadi, Farzaneh Sajedi Hosseini
• DOI: 10.1016/b978-0-443-26722-2.00003-9

Research Groups

• University of Environment, Tehran, Tehran, Iran
• Sari Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University, Watershed Management, Sari, Mazandaran, Iran
• Department of Arid and Mountainous Reclamation Region, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Alborz, Iran

Short Summary

This paper investigates the relative contributions of climatic and anthropogenic factors to the desiccation of lakes, asserting that human activities often play a more significant role than natural climate variability in contemporary hydrological transformations and lake decline.

Objective

• To investigate and evaluate the relative contributions of climatic drivers and anthropogenic activities to the desiccation of lakes, particularly highlighting the impact of human-centric water management practices.

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Global, with regional examples including the Aral Sea, Walker Lake (Nevada), Great Salt Lake (Utah), Lake Chad, and Lake Urmia (Iran).
• Temporal Scale: Focuses on contemporary hydrological transformations and changes observed over recent decades, such as the Aral Sea's reduction since the 1960s.

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Not specified in the provided text.
• Data sources: Terrestrial and remote sensing platforms, existing literature reviews.

Main Results

• Anthropogenic land-water management practices, including excessive water allocation for agriculture, are identified as substantial modifiers of natural hydrological regimes at regional scales.
• Human activities are recognized as equally impactful, and often more significant, than natural climate variability in shaping contemporary hydrological transformations and lake dynamics worldwide.
• Examples like the 92% reduction in the Aral Sea's volume since the 1960s are primarily attributed to water diversion for agricultural practices.

Contributions

• Provides a synthesis of evidence demonstrating the critical and often dominant role of human activities in driving lake desiccation globally.
• Highlights the compounded impacts of climatic drivers and human activities on freshwater ecosystems, emphasizing the need for integrated water management strategies.
• Contributes to the understanding of global freshwater scarcity and the ecological decline of inland water bodies in the Anthropocene era.

Funding

• Not specified in the provided text.

Citation

@article{Javidan2025role,
  author = {Javidan, Raana and Javidan, Narges and Mohammadi, Farnoush and Hosseini, Farzaneh Sajedi},
  title = {The role of climatic and anthropogenic factors in drying up of lakes},
  journal = {Elsevier eBooks},
  year = {2025},
  doi = {10.1016/b978-0-443-26722-2.00003-9},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/b978-0-443-26722-2.00003-9}
}