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Effects of recent anthropogenic activities on the surface deposits of Kuwait

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Abstract

Kuwait experienced severe land degradation over the last 30 years due to different factors. This is reflected in soil loss, crusting, salinization, oil contamination, and vegetation cover deterioration. The recent surface deposits are considered as the local source of sand and dust storms, which have acute environmental hazards on the public health, the State’s economy, and the life quality. They are classified into two main categories: desert and coastal deposits. The distribution of the areas affected by deflation processes and those affected by depositional processes revealed that the northern desert of Kuwait is receiving intense sand supply, but on the other hand, the southern desert of Kuwait has a lower frequency of sand deposits. This study is based on visual comparison between the records of the 1980s and recent field surveys during 2001–2011, as they are the available sources of the relevant information to the scope of the study, to investigate the impact of the anthropogenic activities, the significant role of the aeolian processes, soil type, and climatic conditions on the land degradation, and subsequently the severe loss of vegetation and surfacial cover. A detailed sedimentomorphic map, scale 1:100,000, was prepared for the State of Kuwait based on the topographic map of Kuwait (scales 1:50,000, 1:100,000, and 1:250,000) and photomaps (scale 1:29,000), which were created as per the delineated information from the aerial photos (scale 1:29,000, years 1990, 2001) along with spectral and spatial resolution data of the Radarsat, Landsat-7, IRS-1D (Indian Remote Sensing), ERS, TM, SPOT-4, Advanced Space-borne Thermal Emission and Reflection, and IKANOS data in raw format for Kuwait images for the available years (1989, 1994, and 2000–2004), keeping in view of the terrain in Kuwait and the objective of the study.

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Acknowledgments

This work was conducted as part of two projects sponsored by Kuwait Foundation for Advanced Sciences (KFAS), (Project KFAS2001-03-01 and Project KFAS2006-1401-04). The author is grateful to the Earth and Environmental Sciences Department (EESD), Faculty of Science, Kuwait University for providing the facilities for sedimentological and geomorphological studies. Special thanks to Prof. Fikry Khalaf for supporting the study team with valuable necessary information. Thanks are also due to Prof. Rao Divi for reviewing and editing the manuscript. Thanks are also extended to Mr. Isamil Gharib, Mr. Nabeel Adeeb, Mrs. Nehaya Said, and Mr. Mohammed Nabawi from the EESD who helped in the field, laboratory and drafting works. Thanks are also due to Mr. Ibrahim Mahmood Ahmed from the Geography Department for helping in drafting some maps and figures.

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  1. Earth & Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science, Kuwait University, PO Box 5969, Safat, 13060, Kuwait

    Adeeba E. Al-Hurban

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  1. Adeeba E. Al-Hurban
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Correspondence to Adeeba E. Al-Hurban.

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Al-Hurban, A.E. Effects of recent anthropogenic activities on the surface deposits of Kuwait. Arab J Geosci 7, 665–691 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12517-013-0866-9

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