World of Change: Mesopotamia Marshes
At the start of the twenty-first century, the once-lush, richly diverse wetlands of Mesopotamia had been decimated. In the decades leading up to the new century, hydro-engineering—dams for flood control and hydroelectricity, canals and reservoirs for agricultural irrigation—had greatly reduced the volume of the annual marsh-renewing floods. Then, in the 1990s, the marshes became a political pawn: former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein drained large areas at least in part to punish the tribes living there, the Marsh Arabs, for participating in anti-government rebellions.
This series of images from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite begins on February 28, 2000. Historically, spring runoff would have flooded Mesopotamia by this time of year; the wedge of land between the Tigris (flowing south from top center) and the Euphrates (flowing in from near left center) would have been dotted with ponds and verdant with reeds and other wetland plants. Instead, the area was reduced to a few small green patches and bare soil, varying in shades from purplish brown to pale beige. (The bright green vegetation is likely irrigated cropland, not marsh vegetation.) The largest remnant marsh, Al Hawizeh, straddles the Iran-Iraq border just east of the Tigris River (top right). Its dark color may result from the combination of standing water (dark blue), vegetation (dark green), and bare ground (brown). Between 2000 and 2003, this remnant shrinks further.
Following the Second Gulf War and the end of Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003, Iraqis began demolishing the dikes and canals that had drained the marshes. By February 9, 2004, a dramatic transformation was underway in Mesopotamia. Several large marsh areas north and south of the Euphrates had been re-flooded, and the dry land south of Al Hawizeh Marsh was being systematically filled. These areas appear almost purely dark blue or nearly black, which indicates that standing water was present, but that vegetation was absent or extremely sparse. By 2005, additional areas were flooded, especially north of the Euphrates (near image center). In some places, the water appeared more greenish than it did in 2004; this could be because plants or algae were growing or because the water was shallower than it was the previous year.
