Water storage paradox of reservoir expansion and evaporative losses in the MENA region.

ABSTRACT: Prolonged droughts and population growth have increased the demand for efficient water storage globally. Small agricultural reservoirs support local water demands, but high evaporation rates particularly in dry regions undermine their storage effectiveness. Integrating fine-resolution Sentinel-2 imagery and physical modeling, we created an annual dataset of small agricultural reservoirs (< 0.1 km²) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and quantified their associated evaporative losses from 2016 to 2023. We identified over 133,700 reservoirs, peaking in 2020, providing a combined surface area of 1,408 km². The largest cumulative areas are located in Türkiye (309 km²), Pakistan (234 km²), Iran (168 km²), Iraq (108 km²),

SUBMITTER: Aminzadeh M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12489012 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature