Human-Made Disaster at Lake Urmia (Iran)

人类引起的气候变化和自然资源开发威胁着世界各地的社会和生态系统。乌尔米亚湖位于伊朗西北部，形成了世界第二大高盐湖，自20世纪90年代中期以来一直在干涸，主要是由于其集水区过度用水所致。湖泊干涸的后果包括土地和淡水资源退化、公共卫生和粮食安全问题、经济衰退和失业，从而给居住在盆地周围的650万人造成日益困难的社会经济环境。所有这些问题使乌尔米亚湖成为研究灾难性环境变化、社会经济后果和当地适应战略之间相互作用的理想案例。该研究项目包括两个工作包(WP)，WP1调查潜在的环境引起的移民的当前原因和影响，WP2研究当地实践的水和资源管理的转变。这两个工作方案都是以实地为基础的，在方法上采用了定量家庭调查和半结构化和叙述性访谈相结合的方法来实现目标。WP1的目标是提供细节并帮助建立假设，说明环境退化如何以及在多大程度上导致受灾害影响的个人、家庭和社区的移徙和其他适应战略。环境、经济、社会和政治因素是相互关联的，需要联合审查，以便了解环境因素在人口流动中发挥的作用。此外，WP1力求提供具体证据，说明移徙本身如何可以作为适应战略，以及它如何反过来支持原籍地区的其他形式的适应，例如通过跨地网络和汇款。WP2的目标是从流域地区当地农民的角度确定和分析水资源管理和水社会循环的社会、经济、政治、体制和文化层面。它着重于如何在乌尔米亚湖地区执行水管理，以及最近在巨大的环境压力下它是如何改变的。WP2试图确定国家法规、综合水资源管理解决方案和地方利益之间的摩擦点。这一贡献将通过分析当地实际实行的水资源管理以及社会文化、社会政治和社会经济传统和框架条件来实现。

Human-induced climate change and natural resource exploitation threaten societies and ecosystems worldwide. Lake Urmia, located in north-western Iran and forming the world’s second largest hypersaline lake, has been drying up since the mid-1990s, mainly as a result of excessive water consumption in its catchment area. Consequences of the lake’s desiccation include the degradation of land and freshwater resources, public health and food security concerns, economic decline and unemployment, thus creating an increasingly difficult socio-economic context for 6.5 million people living in the basin’s surroundings. All of these issues make Lake Urmia an ideal case study for research on the interplay between disastrous environmental change, socio-economic consequences and local adaptation strategies. The research project contains two working packages (WPs), with WP1 investigating the current reasons for and effects of potentially environmentally-induced migration, and WP2 studying transformations of locally practiced water and resource management. Both working packages are field-based, with the objectives being approached methodologically by a mix of quantitative household surveys and semi-structured and narrative interviews. The goal of WP1 is to provide details and help build hypotheses on how and how far environmental degradation induces migration and other adaptation strategies of individuals, households and communities affected by the disaster. Environmental, economic, social and political factors are interrelated and need to be examined jointly, in order to understand the roles environmental factors play in population movements. Moreover, WP1 seeks to provide concrete evidence on how migration itself can serve as an adaptation strategy and how it can in turn support other forms of adaptation in the area of origin, for instance through translocal networks and remittances. The goal of WP2 is to identify and analyse social, economic, political, institutional and cultural dimensions of water management and the hydro-social cycle from the perspective of local farmers in the basin region. It focuses on how water management is executed in the Lake Urmia region and how it has changed recently in light of massive environmental stress. WP2 tries to identify points of friction between state regulations, integrated water management solutions and local interests. This contribution will be achieved by analysing empirically locally practiced water management along with socio-cultural, socio-political and socio-economic traditions and framework conditions.