Introduction - Historical Land Use/Land Cover Classification Using Remote Sensing - page 2

quantities and timing of precipitation can be a reason for a large changes in areas
planted, yields and production. Thirdly, over 90 % of the total Syrian territory
(arable lands) needs sustainable irrigation, even in areas which receive large
quantities of precipitation, since most of the rain falls during the winter rather than in
the growing season. In addition, the discharge periods of Syria's rivers in March and
May are late for winter crops and early for summer crops. The stream of the rivers
varies significantly every year. Years of low stream make irrigation and agriculture
difficult. These factors have led to a focus on large scale irrigation projects such as
dam construction as a basis for economic and social development. The irrigable
arable lands estimated in the ERB are 1,040,000 ha (ACSAD 2001 ). Syria has its
own plans for irrigation development within the Euphrates basin. These involve
using water from the Euphrates to irrigate six major regions: the Maskana-Aleppo-
Basin (155,000 ha), the Arrasafa-Basin (25,000 ha), the Al-Balikh-Basin
(185,000 ha), the Euphrates-Floodplain (170,000 ha), the Al-Mayadin-Plain
(40,000 ha), and the lower Al-Khabour-Basin (70,000 ha) (see Fig. 3.2 ). This is a
total of 645,000 ha (Beaumont 1996 ). Until now, only ca. 225,000 ha has been
irrigated. Some 63 % of the irrigated areas in Syria are located in the Euphrates
River Basin, according to the World Bank (CBS 2009 ).
Syria has limited water resources. There are 16 main rivers and tributaries in the
country, of which six are main international rivers. The most important is the
Euphrates, which is Syria's largest river, originating in Turkey and flowing to Iraq.
Its total length is 2,880 km, of which 610 km are in Syria. The Euphrates River
Basin has a surface area of 444,000 km 2 (17 %, or 75,480 km 2 in Syria) and its
actual annual volume is 35.9 million cubic kilometers (ACSAD 2001 ; Kangarani
2006 ). Total actual renewable water resources in Syria are estimated at 16.797
million ck/year. The natural average surface runoff to the Syrian Arab Republic
from international rivers is estimated at 28.515 million ck/year. The actual external
renewable surface water resources are at 17.335 million ck/year, which includes
15.750 million ck of water entering the Euphrates, as unilaterally proposed by
Turkey. The Euphrates River provides more than 80 % of the total Syrian water
resource (Kangarani 2006 ; FAO 2009 ) and is the country's biggest source of irri-
gation water. Early in the 1960s, Syria, due to the need to expand the agricultural
areas and to reduce the rain fed based agriculture areas, and the need for electricity,
started utilizing the Euphrates water in irrigation and hydropower, with construc-
tion beginning on the Attabqa Dam in 1973 (it was completed in 1978) (FAO 2009 ).
Most regional crop estimate frameworks in Syria are based on knowledge from
local experts (e.g., extension officers, farmers, grain traders etc.). These frame-
works have developed depending heavily on the expertise of the various officials.
Estimates were often based on historical regional, state and national level statis-
tics, which were, and still are, collated by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS)
via an agricultural census/survey at the province-/Muhafazah (statistical local area)
scale. Lack of detailed province scale information further emphasizes the need for
alternative accurate and objective crop area estimates to assist agro-industry
decision-making at the regional scale.