Analysis of Dust Emission Point Sources in the Middle East

Dust storms, also known as sandstorms or haboobs, are common natural phenomena in arid and semi-arid regions like the Middle East and pose significant challenges to the region. Moreover, the past decade has witnessed severe dust storms in Iraq, Jordan, and Syria. One of the main reasons for the increased magnitude of dust storms can be drought. This dissertation is composed of two chapters attempting to identify and analyze dust point sources in Syria, Iraq, and Jordan from the year 2010 to 2021. The first chapter is titled “Land Cover Effect on Dust Storms in the Middle East by Detecting Dust Point Sources between 2010 and 2021”. In this chapter, MODIS true color satellite images of dust storms in Iraq, Jordan, and Syria for the period 2010 - 2021 were analyzed for dust point sources detection. A total of 4923 dust point sources were visually detected from MODIS images. Results showed that the Tigris-Euphrates Basin contains ~ 90% of the points within its boundary. A significant cluster of dust source point sources in the Tigris-Euphrates Basin is confirmed by the Nearest Neighbor Ratio (NNR) of 0.41 at р < 0.001. Land cover maps were created to investigate the dust point sources of land cover and to calculate the dust emission ratio (DER). Bare land is the main land cover in the Middle East, and its DER is 1.34. The DER values for cropland, grassland, and shrubland are 0.1, 0.41, and 0.41, respectively. It was found that wetlands (occupying 1% of the total study area) have the highest DER (1.70). Wetlands contain dry lakes, parts of marshes, and drying lakes in the Tigris-Euphrates Basin area. The results of this chapter also show that, generally, no matter what the land cover class is, the DER is higher inside the Tigris-Euphrates Basin than outside of it. The second chapter of this dissertation is titled “Using NDVI as a Tool to Observe the Number of Dust Point Sources in the Middle East/ Effect of Drought and Vegetation on Dust Emission.” In this chapter, NDVI maps were produced to estimate drought conditions. The NDVI value for each dust point source was extracted through overlay analysis. Overlay analysis of dust point sources and NDVI maps revealed that 77 % of the NDVI values for the dust point sources are less than 0.1, and 99 % are 0.2 or less. Moreover, the one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), Tukey HSD, and statistical test were performed, and the results show a statistically significant difference in the NDVI values between the different land cover types except for urban lands; where NDVI values are not statistically different from NDVI values of shrubland and bare lands (p < 0.05). In other words, results indicate that if there were a drought or insufficient precipitation in a particular year, the correlation between the NDVI value and land cover class suggests that dust point sources may be significantly generated from land cover classes such as shrubland, grassland, and cropland. This dissertation shows that poor agricultural practices (e.g., fallow practices) combined with drought (primarily in 2009 -2012) may have contributed to dust emissions from agricultural lands in Iraq, Syria, and Jordan. Therefore, it is essential to have a professional land management strategy; for instance, establishing windbreaks and vegetation barriers is recommended in the region. Additionally, regional cooperation is crucial in addressing dust issues, since dust emission, particularly from the Tigris-Euphrates Basin, can pass the borders to neighboring countries.

Embargo status: Restricted until 06/2173. To request the author grant access, click on the PDF link to the left.