Satellite Images Show How The World’s Lakes Are Shrinking At An Alarming Rate

They were once great bodies of water containing an abundance of wildlife and an important resource for humans.

But a growing number of lakes, some that were once thriving destinations for tourists, are drying up faster than ever - and in the majority of cases the blame lies with water mismanagement and climate change, according to an ecology expert.

Shocking satellite pictures show how lakes such as the Aral Sea in Uzbekistan and Lake Urmia in Iran are getting smaller and smaller by the year.

In the case of the Aral Sea, it started drying up in the 1960s as water was taken away from the lake to irrigate the crops in the dried land of what was the USSR. And the impact of that means the lake now only stands at 10 per cent of its former surface area of 26,300 square miles - and has decreased by an estimated 167 billion gallons of water.

A similar situation has arisen with Lake Urmia, which was once a luxury holiday destination, but has started to shrink due to dams on the rivers feeding it.

Today, it has lost 40 per cent of its previous area of 2,000 square miles.

Another tourist destination under threat is the Dead Sea in the Middle East, which is also shrinking at an alarming rate due to water mismanagement.

Water levels have been dropping by up to three feet per year, and Israel, Jordan and Palestine have agreed to a plan to pump in about 53 billion gallons of water a year from the Red Sea to boost levels. Meanwhile the demand for water in the US states of California and Nevada has been blamed for Owen’s Lake reducing significantly since 1926.

This is because the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power diverted the Owens River into the LA Aqueduct instead of the lake.

Now, over 90 years on, city officials are spending $1.2 billion to try and stop the lake from becoming a complete dust bowl. According to lakes expert Lisa Borre, who is a researcher at the Cary Institute in Millbrook, New York, human intervention is the main reason these landmarks are disappearing.

Climate change can exacerbate problems caused by mismanagement of water resources. With few exceptions, lakes across the globe are warming.

Photo: Daily Mail Two boats lay abandoned in the middle of the Aral Sea in Uzbekistan. The Aral Sea had been the fourth largest lake in the world but has now shrunk at an alarming rate. A period of drought along with water mismanagement that was used for irrigation has...

Photo: Daily Mail Satellite images show the Aral Sea in 2000, top, and in 2017, below. The yellow outline shows where the shoreline had once stood in 1960, more than 50 years ago.