Studying Land Subsidence in Iran Caused by Groundwater Over Extraction by Preparing the Comprehensive Subsidence Map of the Country

Over extraction of ground water is considered a global problem, which, in addition to the threats to countries’ water resources, has in many cases caused the lowering of the earth's surface or land subsidence. Iran has suffered land subsidence in many cases due to the dry and semi-arid climate on the one hand and the pressure on underground water resources for agricultural development on the other hand. Regarding the destructive effects of land subsidence on water and soil resources, it is a sustainability key issue to manage the phenomenon and prevent the spread of it. Since the first step in the management of this phenomenon is to identify the affected areas, in this research, for the first time, a comprehensive map of Iran's subsidence has been prepared by combining various geodetic observations, and the affected areas have been examined and analyzed in terms of their extent and height displacement rate.