Urmia Lake is located in a closed basin between both the West
and Eastern Azerbaijan provinces in the north-west of Iran (37°4’-38°17’ N and
45°-46°E). The shape of the lake can be seen as a semi-triangle with a maximum
length of 135 km and the surface area is between 5000 and 6000 km2.
The lake in its current form can be seen in Figure 1. Urmia
Lake is one of the most saline lakes, as well as the second largest, in the world
and the largest lake on the Iranian Plateau. It is considered as a UNESCO
biosphere and a Ramsar wetland because the lake has a unique eco-system.
Surface flow, direct rainfall, and groundwater create the
majority of the sources for the lake. In the Urmia lake basin, there are
twenty-one permanents and thirty-nine episodic rivers. Among the thirteen main
rivers, Zarrinerood is the largest river with total annual discharge value of
about 2 × 109 m3.
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