AI and Ancient Techniques used to Combat Sand and Dust Storms in the Middle East and North Africa

Friday - May 12 2023, 19:41 UTC - 1 year ago

Researchers are using artificial intelligence and a 3000-year-old water harvesting technique to combat the $13 billion annual loss caused by sand and dust storms in the Middle East and North Africa. Human-induced climate change and anthropogenic factors have worsened the situation and the research team is looking into socio-political changes to further understand the issue.

Researchers are using artificial intelligence and a 3000-year-old water harvesting technique to combat the $13 billion annual loss caused by sand and dust storms in the Middle East and North Africa.

Sand and dust storms cause damage to crops, human and animal health, buildings and infrastructure, and force shutdowns for several weeks. There are natural sources of these storms, but also human-induced factors have added to the problem in the last decades.

Hossein Hashemi, Associate Professor in Water Resource Engineering, and the Centre for Advanced Middle Eastern Studies at Lund University, has been studying the causes and trends for several years.

His research provides further understanding of the challenges, but also some possible solutions: .

"We must look at these issues from a multidisciplinary perspective, adding socio-political, economical, and management aspects to the technical and natural science-based facts. There is much to learn from traditional practices that are naturally adapted to the ecosystems and use sustainable methods," says Hossein Hashemi.

The highest density of dust sources in the Middle East is in Iraq between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers and along the Syria-Iraq border. This is the focus area for Hossein Hashemi´s current research which also includes neighboring Türkiye and Iran.

The natural sources of sand and dust storms are mainly deserts and dry lands. In the hot months in the summertime, the strong north-easterly winds carry large amounts of particles across the region.

However, these storms are becoming more frequent, they span over longer periods of time and spread to a wider area. Climate change is likely a driver, but also anthropogenic factors such as more abandoned agricultural land, water management upstream, migration to urban areas, and depopulation caused by conflicts and war.

"The environmental data from the area related to climate change and human activities are scarce and not sufficient for strong conclusions on this correlation," says Hossein Hashemi.

However, Hossein Hashemi and his team monitor the development over time, using input from both remote sensing and advanced data modeling, allowing him to study various changes and time periods separately to define probable causes and effects.

"There is less water inflow to the lakes and marshlands in the Middle East due to factors such as dam constructions upstream and climate change. With the support of artificial intelligence and satellite data, we can define areas where we see that land is more susceptible to becoming new dust sources," explains Hossein Hashemi.

The entire region is now mapped using artificial intelligence, and adding to the spatial analysis, the novelty of the project run by Hossein Hashemi and his team is that with temporal changes, they can dynamically show how dust sources vary over time.

"Next, we want to relate these dust sources to socio-political changes. We are looking into the relationship between land use changes and war in the region, especially in Iraq. How has the war affected the land use, and has these changes led to the transformation of lands into dust sources," says Hossein Hashemi.

The research team that brings perspectives from natural geography, sociology, and engineering, has recently published a study of the lakes in the are. Their contribution is that for over 2000 years, humans have used a technique called 'bunding' in the marshlands in Iraq between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to direct and control the water from the rivers, reduce flooding and erosion, and increase the agricultural yield.