Effects of recent anthropogenic activities on the surface deposits of Kuwait
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ORIGINAL PAPER
Effects of recent anthropogenic activities on the surface deposits of Kuwait Adeeba E. Al-Hurban
Received: 31 May 2012 / Accepted: 25 January 2013 / Published online: 21 March 2013 # Saudi Society for Geosciences 2013
Abstract Kuwait experienced severe land degradation over the last 30 years due to different factors. This is reflected in soil loss, crusting, salinization, oil contamination, and vegetation cover deterioration. The recent surface deposits are considered as the local source of sand and dust storms, which have acute environmental hazards on the public health, the State’s economy, and the life quality. They are classified into two main categories: desert and coastal deposits. The distribution of the areas affected by deflation processes and those affected by depositional processes revealed that the northern desert of Kuwait is receiving intense sand supply, but on the other hand, the southern desert of Kuwait has a lower frequency of sand deposits. This study is based on visual comparison between the records of the 1980s and recent field surveys during 2001– 2011, as they are the available sources of the relevant information to the scope of the study, to investigate the impact of the anthropogenic activities, the significant role of the aeolian processes, soil type, and climatic conditions on the land degradation, and subsequently the severe loss of vegetation and surfacial cover. A detailed sedimentomorphic map, scale 1:100,000, was prepared for the State of Kuwait based on the topographic map of Kuwait (scales 1:50,000, 1:100,000, and 1:250,000) and photomaps (scale 1:29,000), which were created as per the delineated information from the aerial photos (scale 1:29,000, years 1990, 2001) along with spectral and spatial resolution data of the Radarsat, Landsat-7, IRS-1D (Indian Remote Sensing), ERS, TM, SPOT-4, Advanced Space-borne Thermal Emission and Reflection, and IKANOS data in raw format for Kuwait images for the available years (1989, 1994, and
A. E. Al-Hurban (*) Earth & Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science, Kuwait University, PO Box 5969, Safat 13060, Kuwait e-mail: [email protected]
2000–2004), keeping in view of the terrain in Kuwait and the objective of the study. Keywords Sedimentology . Geomorphology . Aeolian . Desert . Coastal . Degradation
Introduction The severe land degradation that Kuwait has suffered and is still suffering from in the recent decades could be attributed primarily to anthropogenic activities including overgrazing, camping and recreation, off-road driving, industrial activities, and specifically quarrying, in addition to the severe damage that the area was subjected to during the Iraqi invasion and liberation with the associated hostilities (1990–1991). Misak et al. (1999) reported that Kuwait has 44 % of its land surface moderately degraded and 32 % severely degraded. Gharib et al. (1987) proposed that, in addition to the existing quarries in Kuwait, most probable source of the dust fallout in Kuwait is derived from the southern areas of Iraq,
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