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Item type:Publication, Access status: with files , Water storage paradox of reservoir expansion and evaporative losses in the MENA region(Nature Publishing Group, 2025-12-01); ; ; ; Prolonged droughts and population growth have increased the demand for efficient water storage globally. Small agricultural reservoirs support local water demands, but high evaporation rates particularly in dry regions undermine their storage effectiveness. Integrating fine-resolution Sentinel-2 imagery and physical modeling, we created an annual dataset of small agricultural reservoirs (< 0.1 km2) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and quantified their associated evaporative losses from 2016 to 2023. We identified over 133,700 reservoirs, peaking in 2020, providing a combined surface area of 1,408 km2. The largest cumulative areas are located in Türkiye (309 km2), Pakistan (234 km2), Iran (168 km2), Iraq (108 km2), and Egypt (64 km2). Small agricultural reservoirs offer a storage capacity of 1,243 million cubic meters, accounting for up to 16% of irrigation and livestock water use in most MENA countries. Annual evaporative losses from these reservoirs may potentially exceed 2,400 million cubic meters with hotspots of cumulative evaporation corresponding to regions with the highest reservoir surface area, including southern Pakistan, southwestern Iran, and southeastern Iraq. Our analysis suggests strong climatic and anthropogenic influences on the expansion of reservoirs and their storage efficiency emphasizing the need for mitigation strategies to improve agricultural water security in water-stressed regions.Publicationtype: Journal Article14 73 - Some of the metrics are blocked by yourconsent settings
Item type:Publication, Access status: with files , Struggling over water, losing it through evaporation: The case of Afghanistan and Iran(Elsevier, 2025-01-29); ; ; ; Prolonged droughts and rising water demand have worsened water disputes in the transboundary Helmand basin, shared by Afghanistan and Iran. While both countries have built water storage reservoirs to mitigate water shortages, evaporative losses from these reservoirs reduce their effectiveness. This issue intensifies challenges over water shortages in the region without reliable monitoring data. In this study, reanalysis and remote sensing data was used to calculate the rate of water evaporation from the major water reservoirs located in Helmand basin. Additionally, globally available moisture trajectory datasets were used to analyze where the evaporated water from these major storage reservoirs eventually falls as precipitation. Our main focus was on quantifying how much of this water precipitates outside the Helmand Basin. Our results indicate that evaporative losses of blue water from reservoirs in this transboundary river basin have reached to 284 million cubic meters in 2023. Additionally, our results indicate the presence of a teleconnection, whereby a significant portion of the water evaporated from these reservoirs is transported and then precipitates outside the Helmand Basin, reaching up to an annual average of 92%. The largest portion of this evaporated water was received as precipitation by India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and China, accounting for 25%, 19%, 16% and 6%, respectively. This study provides a real-world example of how improved water intelligence and transparency, achieved through remote sensing data and modelling, can support water diplomacy and conflict resolution in transboundary basins.Publicationtype: Journal Article10 41