Document Type

Article

Publication Date

5-12-1994

Abstract

The Gulf War resulted in much damage to the desert surface and coastal zone of Kuwait Environmental effects include those due to: C the spilling of oil into the Arabian (Persian) Gulf water, polluting vast stretches of the coastal area of Kuwait, and particularly the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia; (2) the burning of over 730 oil wells, where droplets of ol and soot were deposited onto broad zone of the desert surface T downwind of the oil fields; (3) the forration of vast oil lakes on the desert surface from wells that were exploded but did not catch fire; and (4) the disruption of the desert pavement (a naturally occuring, one-grain-thick layer of pebbles) by the digging of trenc hes and building of berms, resulting in the exposure of fine-grained soil to the action of wind and the formation of dunes that encroach on roads and threaten farms in the open desert. These features were detected, mapped and classified from Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and SPOT images. Change detection techniques using pairs of pre- and post-war TM images was particularly useful in establishing geologic effects of the Gulf War on the de sert surface of Kuwait. Geographic Information Systems (GIS), methodologies were also useful in the analysis of the War's impact on the environment of Kuwait.

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