Surface Water Changes and Water Depletion of Lake Hamrin, Eastern Iraq, Using Sentinel-2 Images and Geographic Information Systems

Iraq’s lakes and rivers are currently exposed to drought because of climatic and political conditions. This study uses satellite images and geographic information systems to display the water depletion and the change in the surface water area of Hamrin Lake. Sentinel-2 imagery of 2018 and 2022 was used to analyze the surface water area changes and water depletion. A comparison was made by studying the changes that happened between 2018 and 2022 respectively. Moreover, a supervised classification technique was implemented using the Support Vector Machine algorithm (SVM). Besides the shrinkage of Hamrin Lake was determined based on 2017 to 2022 Sentinel-2 images and the Normal Difference Water Index (NDWI). Findings showed an extreme change occurred in the surface water area of the lake, which had decreased by 73% in study years and changed to land in 2022. Based on the resultant maps clear alteration is notable in the shape of the lake from north to southeast where the maximum retraction occurred. The surface water area was 144 km2 in 2018 which decreased to 39 km2 in 2022 and was concentrated in the western part of the lake. Besides, the lake's capacity has become 234 million cubic meters, and the amount of water in it is very little while its capacity is more than two billion cubic meters. This sharp drop in the water level in the lake indicates that what is flowing to the lake is less than what is released from it, especially due to the lack of rain. In addition to the drought, the neighboring countries have taken measures to change courses, cut off some rivers, and build dams, all of which are additional influential factors that impose quick intervention and action to prevent the lake from drying out completely.