Monitoring the Dead Sea Area Changes Using Remote Sensing and GIS

Abstract

The Dead Sea is hydrologically considered a very important place due its location at the lowest point on the Earth at an elevation of 416.3m below sea level, and being the saltiest lake (332kg/m3) in the world. The continuous decrease in the Dead Sea water level is causing serious environmental problems in the region. The most important is reduction of the Dead Sea area, and its effects on the surrounding groundwater resources. This paper assessed the Dead Sea area changes by studying the relationship between human activities, represented by evaporation pond surface area, and the Dead Sea surface area, in order to determine the boundary conditions of the Dead Sea groundwater basin for possible groundwater resources assessment. In this study, it is found that the Dead Sea surface area has shrunk by 30.4% during the period 1973 to 2004, and the evaporation pond surface area has increased by more than 600%. The continuous expansion of evaporation ponds for industrial works in both Jordan and Israel is accelerating the evaporation rate of the Dead Sea. In the last few years, the average drop of the Dead Sea water level has been 1 m/year. About 47% of this drop results from the industrial works.