Engineering and Technology Journal

Abstract

The Mesopotamian marshlands, the largest wetland in the Middle East and one of
the most outstanding in the world have been lost mainly as a result of drainage and
damming. The cause of the decline is mainly as a result of damming upstream as well as
drainage schemes since the 1970s. The Tigris and the Euphrates are amongst the most
intensively dammed rivers in the world. In the past 40 years, the two rivers have been
fragmented by the construction of more than 30 large dams, whose storage capacity is
several times greater than the volume of both rivers. Satellite images provide hard
evidence that the once extensive marshlands have dried-up and regressed into desert,
with vast stretches salt encrusted. Recent satellite imagery shows only limited areas of
the marshlands have been reclaimed. The objected of this study was to classify a land
cover methodology through digital analysis of historical and new satellite data. Two
satellite images, Landsat (TM) and MODIS of AL-Kurmashia Marsh south of Iraq
acquired in 2003 (before reflooded) and 2005 (after reflooded).