Environmental impacts of the 1991 Persian Gulf war: a remotesensing perspective

摘要

Environmental impact assessment of natural factors and non-naturaldisturbances on the ecosystems has been one of the key applications ofthe state-of-the-art remote sensing technologies. The 1991 Persian Gulfwar, with smoke plumes and oil slicks in particular, was one of thesesignificant disturbances in ecosystems. For the past eight years, remotesensing technologies have been widely used in the research on theenvironmental impacts of the war in the Gulf and other regions of theworld. There is a compelling need to formulate a comprehensive andcohesive summary of the available scientific information. This reviewtries to meet this need by focusing on the environmental impacts of the1991 Persian Gulf war on atmospheric, marine, and terrestrialenvironments of the Gulf region and its surrounding areas. Specialattention has been paid to the applications of remote sensing data andmethodologies in environmental impact assessment. A list of theavailable remotely sensed data sets for the periods before, during, andafter the war are also presented