[9] By late 2017, the lake had shrunk to 10% of its former size (and 1/60 of water volume in 1998) due to persistent general drought in Iran, but also the damming of the local rivers that flow into it, and the pumping of groundwater from the surrounding area.

Locally, the lake is referred to in Persian as Daryâče-ye Orumiye (دریاچهٔ ارومیه), in Azerbaijani as Urmu gölü (اۇرمۇ گؤلۆ).

There, in the records from the reign of Shalmaneser III (858–824 BCE), two names are mentioned in the area of Lake Urmia: Parsuwaš (i.e. the Persians) and Matai (i.e. the Mitanni).

But the Matai were Medes and linguistically the name Parsuwaš matches the Old Persian word pārsa, an Achaemenid ethnolinguistic designation.

[21] In the last five hundred years the area around Lake Urmia has been home to Azerbaijanis, Kurds, Persians, Assyrians,[22] and Armenians.

[28][29] Lake Urmia is an internationally registered protected area as both a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve[27] and a Ramsar site.

This in turn has increased the salinity of the lake's water, reducing its viability as home to thousands of migratory birds, including flamingo populations.

Nonetheless, Urmia Lake is considered a significant natural habitat of Artemia, which serve as food source for the migratory birds such as flamingos.

However this assessment has been contradicted,[33] and another population of this species has recently been discovered in the Koyashskoye Salt Lake at the Crimean Peninsula.

[35] A project to build a highway across the lake was initiated in the 1970s but was abandoned after the Iranian Revolution of 1979, leaving a 15 km (9.3 mi) causeway with an unbridged gap.

[36] The project was revived in the early 2000s, and was completed in November 2008 with the opening of the 1.5 km (0.93 mi) Urmia Lake Bridge across the remaining gap.

Experts have warned [citation needed] that the construction of the causeway and bridge, together with a series of ecological factors, will eventually lead to the drying up of the lake, turning it into a salt marsh, which will adversely affect the climate of the region.

Several months earlier, in March 2014, Iran's Department of Environment and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) issued a plan to save the lake and the nearby wetland, which called for spending $225 million in the first year and $1.3 billion overall for restoration.

[42][43] In 2015, president Hassan Rouhani's cabinet approved $660 million for improving irrigation systems, and steps to combat desertification.

[10] In September 2018, A working group tasked with reviving Lake Urmia has started to grow two types of plants to save the region from salt particles.

[44] The prospect that Lake Urmia might dry up entirely has drawn protests in Iran and abroad, directed at both the regional and national governments.

Protests flared in late August 2011 after the Iranian parliament voted not to provide funds to channel water from the Aras River to raise the lake level.

[47][51] According to the governor of West Azerbaijan, at least 60 supporters of the lake were arrested in Urmia, and dozens in Tabriz, because they had not applied for a permit to organize a demonstration.

[citation needed] Urmia Lake Restoration Program (ULRP) is run by Sharif University of Technology with the following goals:[62]