Fortifications. Kuwait

War-Induced Soil Degradation, Depletion, and Destruction (The Case of Ground Fortifications in the Terrestrial Environment of Kuwait)... 

The main objective of this study is to assess the environmental damage caused in Kuwait as a result of military operations during the Iraqi occupation emphasis will be given to the impact of ground fortifications on the main components of the terrestrial environment of Kuwait. 

Geographically, the Iraqi ground fortifications are distributed into two main units in Kuwait. These are ... 

In the oil fields of Kuwait, the Iraqis constructed about 5,098 bunkers and pits (Table 2). For example, the northeastern part of Kuwait (excluding Bubiyan and Warba islands) was dotted with about 164,153 bunkers and pits. As a direct result of the construction of these bunkers and pits about 16.7 million cubic meters of excavated materials were exposed on the surface [11]. The size of the area damaged by these fortifications is around 3.9 km. ... 

There is extensive evidence that damage to the desert surface and exposure of huge amounts of excavated materials that resulted from the ground fortifications has caused a dramatic increase in the amount of sand mobilized in Kuwait. This evidence is well documented in the scientific literature [1, 5-7,11]. 

Table 1 Total number of ground fortifications in different sectors in Kuwait...

Table 3 Degree of damage caused by ground fortifications in several areas of Kuwait...

Fig. 3 Total number of military fortifications in the northeastern area of Kuwait...

Fig. 5 A military fortification in Kabd area (south west of Kuwait City, 10 October 1992)...

From the military point of view, more than 60% of the Iraqi troops with their heavy equipment and intensive ground fortifications were deployed in the northeastern area. The southern fringes of this area, which constitute the northern outskirts of Kuwait Bay represent one of the most severely damaged areas by military activities. Damage resulted from the construction of thousands of military fortifications and the establishment of other defensive belts including sandy berms and long trenches. 

As a direct result of the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, the terrestrial environment of Kuwait has been intensively disrupted by complex systems of ground fortifications. For example, the northeastern part of the country (about 16.4% of Kuwait) was dotted with about 164,153 ground fortifications of different types (about 60 fortifi-cations/km ). Some, 17 million m of loose soils were excavated from these fortifications. The establishment of these ground fortifications has both onsite and offsite impact. The onsite impact includes terrain deformation, destruction of vegetation cover, and wildlife deterioration. While the offsite impact inclndes active aeolian processes (sand and dust storms). 

Al-Ajmi D, Misak RF, A1 Dousari A, A1 Enezi A (1996) Impact of Iraqi war machinery and ground fortification on the surface sediments and Aeolian processes in Kuwait. Proceedings of the international conference on the effects of the Iraqi aggression on the State of Kuwait... 

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