Subsidence caused by groundwater depletion beginning to affect key infrastructure such as airports and roads

Groundwater depletion in Iran is reaching crisis point, according to a study published this year. Satellite images reveal vast cracks and sinkholes appearing, and large areas of land subsiding at a rate of more than 10cm a year, as a result of excessive groundwater extraction. It could take hundreds to thousands of years before this water is replenished, researchers say.

Mahmud Haghighi and Mahdi Motagh from Leibniz University in Germany analysed satellite data gathered between 2014 and 2020 to assess the impact of groundwater extraction across Iran. Their results, published in Science Advances, showed that 3.5% of the country’s area is subsiding, with extraction of groundwater for irrigation the primary cause. The subsidence is affecting infrastructure such as airports, roads and railways. The most severe impact is being felt in Kerman province in the south-east of the country, Iran’s pistachio-producing region, where subsidence rates of more than 35cm a year have been recorded.