Overview of Study Area - Historical Land Use/Land Cover Classification Using Remote Sensing - page 39

Fig. 3.1 Present-day Syrian borders, the 14-governorates administrative divisions, Agro-climatic
Zones, and the Euphrates River Basin study area
joined by its major tributaries, the Al-Balikh and Al-Khabour, which too begin in
Turkey, and streams southeast across the Syrian flat terrain before inflowing Iraqi
terrain near Qusaybah. The Euphrates watershed includes five counties
(Table 3.1 ): Turkey, Iraq, Syria, Saudi Arabia and Jordan. Its real annual volume
is 35.9 billion cubic meters (Kibaroglu 2002 ; FAO 2009 ). For almost its total
length, the river streams in a valley changeable in width from 2 to 12 km, and with
the valley base some 80-250 m less than the neighboring plains. In several places,
the river splits into two or more canals, constructing several atolls/islands, several
of which support dense thickets. There are also meanders, oxbow lakes, gravel pits
and silted old water courses covered in reed-beds. Much of the river bank contains
low alluvial cliffs. The water level was previously some 3-4 m higher in spring
than in autumn due to the snow-melt in the Turkish highlands, but with the
production of several large dams in Turkey during the previous decade, this yearly
flood is now greatly decreased.
The Euphrates River has a number of main tributaries where the Syrian gov-
ernment has carried out numerous projects. These flows are: (1) The Al-Khabour
River (460 km), which rises in the Raas Al-ain region in Syria and flows into the
Euphrates; (2) The Assajour River, which originates in Turkey and flows through
Syria for a length of 48 km; its annual runoff is 100 million m 3 ; and (3) The Al-
Balikh River, which rises near the Syrian villages of Aain Al-Arous and Tal-Abiad
and flows through 105 km within Syria before joining the Euphrates. Its annual
runoff is 150 million m 3 .