Browsing by Author "Hayat, Ehsanullah"

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Hydrological and Meteorological Drought and Trend Analysis in Afghanistan and Their Implications on Transboundary Rivers
(01. Izmir Institute of Technology, 2022-06) Hayat, Ehsanullah; Tayfur, Gökmen; 03.03. Department of Civil Engineering; 03. Faculty of Engineering; 01. Izmir Institute of Technology
Afghanistan as a landlocked country located within central and southwestern Asia has an arid to semi-arid climate. Most of the people are involved in agricultural activities and major part of the country's gross domestic product depends on agriculture, but the country has the lowest water storage capacity. Consecutive periods of droughts and rapid snowmelt due to climate change have made it more challenging for convenient water resources management practices. Other major concern is transboundary water that flows to downstream countries without any sharing agreement rather than one on the Helmand River. Therefore, this study first aims to investigate the historical hydrological and meteorological drought characteristics across the whole country using Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) and Reconnaissance Drought Index (RDI) for meteorological drought analysis for a period 1979-2019, and Streamflow Drought Index (SDI) is used for hydrological drought analysis using two different time series (1960-1979 and 2008-2020) from 55 hydro-meteorological stations. Missing streamflow data in four stations across four transboundary River Basins (RBs) of the country is modeled using Remote Sensing (RS) techniques via Landsat satellite imagery time series data from 1988 to 2021, and which is the novelty of this study. Afterwards, trends in streamflow, precipitation and temperature are examined using Mann-Kendall's and Sen's slope statistical tests. A four decadal countrywide drought maps are also generated. Finally, the effects of droughts and trends on transboundary rivers in the country are investigated. Data from (55) ground stations is used for this purpose in this study.
Citation - WoS: 5
Citation - Scopus: 4
Meteorological Drought and Trend Effects on Transboundary River Basins in Afghanistan
(Springer, 2023) Hayat, Ehsanullah; Tayfur, Gökmen; 03.03. Department of Civil Engineering; 03. Faculty of Engineering; 01. Izmir Institute of Technology
Afghanistan, as a landlocked country located within central and southwestern Asia, has an arid to semi-arid climate. Most of the people are involved in agricultural activities, and a major part of the country's gross domestic product depends on agriculture, but the country has the lowest water storage capacity. Consecutive periods of drought and rapid snowmelt due to climate change have made it more challenging for suitable water resource management practices. This study investigates the historical meteorological drought characteristics across the whole country by employing the Reconnaissance Drought Index for the period 1979-2019 using data from 55 meteorological stations. Trends in precipitation and temperature are also investigated using the Mann-Kendall's and the Sen's slope statistical tests. A four-decadal countrywide drought map is generated. Extreme and severe droughts were observed in 1999 and 2000 across the whole country. Moderate drought events have started to occur with a frequency of 3 to 5 years since 1999. The decadal annual rainfall values in each river basin indicate that rainfall has decreased in the last two decades with a significant decline in 1999-2008. The trends of increase in temperature and decrease in precipitation are indications of rapid climate change in the country, especially in the south, west, and southwest regions. Due to the intensity and frequency of the droughts, river flow rates have decreased; and therefore, there is a need for the upstream and downstream neighboring countries to come to terms with the phenomenon of a new normal in the hydrological cycle and accordingly revise new water sharing treaties.
Citation - WoS: 37
Citation - Scopus: 47
Quality of Groundwater Resources in Afghanistan
(Springer Verlag, 2017-07) Hayat, Ehsanullah; Baba, Alper; 03.03. Department of Civil Engineering; 03. Faculty of Engineering; 01. Izmir Institute of Technology
Water is the main source of energy production and economy in Afghanistan where agriculture accounts for more than 50% of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP). Access to safe drinking water is still a problem in the country, which has caused different health issues and even child mortality especially in rural areas. Groundwater is the main source of drinking water in the country. However, little knowledge is available about the quality of groundwater throughout the entire country, and its quality has not been investigated extensively yet like in other countries in the world. While most people think that consuming groundwater is a reliable and safe source of drinking water for health, the United Nations (UN) agencies report various kinds of waterborne diseases and even child mortalities due to drinking water quality in the country. In this article, significant geogenic and anthropogenic factors that play a vital role in groundwater contamination of the country are identified and explained. Different geogenic contaminations such as arsenic, fluoride, sulfate, and boron occur in several areas of Afghanistan that have a direct effect on human health. The water quality mapping for Afghanistan is completed for half of the country, which shows that groundwater is plagued by high levels of fluoride and arsenic in some areas. The water quality mapping of the other half of the country cannot be completed due to security concerns currently. Also, there are different kinds of waterborne diseases such as diarrhea, cholera, and dysentery that can be seen in different parts of the country because of anthropogenic activities which continuously deteriorate groundwater.
Significant Geogenic and Anthropogenic Factors Concerning Contamination of Groundwater Resources in Afghanistan
(Nevşehir Hacı Bektaş Veli Üniversitesi, 2017) Hayat, Ehsanullah; Baba, Alper; 03.03. Department of Civil Engineering; 03. Faculty of Engineering; 01. Izmir Institute of Technology
In recent years, the groundwater quality in Afghanistan has raised some concerns as far as very few studies exist about its quality. The main reason behind the little knowledge about groundwater quality is that the country is recovering from decades of war and instability. Being one of the main and reliable sources for drinking, public and private institutions have started some initial investigations from the last few years to examine groundwater quality through the entire country. Still, it will take some time to complete such a broad study. In this article, an extensive review of the literature about the groundwater quality of Afghanistan is conducted where the existing raw data is analyzed as well to obtain some important results and indicate them scientifically.