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  4. Struggling over water, losing it through evaporation: The case of Afghanistan and Iran
 
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Struggling over water, losing it through evaporation: The case of Afghanistan and Iran

Citation Link: https://doi.org/10.15480/882.14579
Publikationstyp
Journal Article
Date Issued
2025-01-29
Sprache
English
Author(s)
Nevermann, Hannes  
Geohydroinformatik B-9  
Madani, Kaveh  
Zampieri, Matteo  
Hoteit, Ibrahim  
Shokri, Nima  
Geohydroinformatik B-9  
TORE-DOI
10.15480/882.14579
TORE-URI
https://hdl.handle.net/11420/54152
Journal
Journal of environmental management  
Volume
375
Article Number
124319
Citation
Journal of Environmental Management 375: 124319 (2025)
Publisher DOI
10.1016/j.jenvman.2025.124319
Scopus ID
2-s2.0-85216231730
Publisher
Elsevier
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.
Subjects
Evaporation from water reservoirs | Helmand basin | Transboundary basins | Water diplomacy | Water management
DDC Class
333: Economics of Land and Energy
551: Geology, Hydrology Meteorology
320: Political Science
363: Other Social Problems and Services
Funding(s)
Projekt DEAL  
Publication version
publishedVersion
Lizenz
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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