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Water harvesting (WH) and aquifer recharge (AR) have been promoted in recent decades as solutions to the overexploitation of groundwater resources in many countries around the world. Remote sensing (RS) and geographic information system (GIS) technologies with multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) enable the analysis of many parameters to identify potential WH and AR sites and suitable zones for site-specific and cost-effective recharge structures. Iraq is located within an arid and semiarid region and thus suffers from water scarcity and absent surface water resources. The use of RS and GIS technology for detection of appropriate sites for WH and AR could potentially increase water availability. The criteria selected for determining appropriate WH and AR areas were runoff, drainage, geology, groundwater depth, slope, soil texture, and land use/land cover. The selection of these criteria was found to be more important and more frequent in a literature review for WH and AR, and the weightage of each criterion should be based on the opinion of experts. The obtained results indicated only five optimum sites for check dam construction for WH, due to their locations in suitable land class, slope (

The unified soil classification system (USCS) first proposed by Casagrande and subsequently developed by the Army Corps of Engineers. It widely used in many building codes and books. An-Najaf city is the most important city in Iraq due to its religious and spiritual value in the Muslim world, so it is fast expanding and continuous developing city in Iraq. The data from 464 boreholes in the study area for depths of 0–26 m have been used. 13 Soil samples were collected from each borehole with 13 depths level (0–26) m with 2 m intervals. The USCS was applied to the soil samples from 13 depth levels borehole. This research aims to create a geodatabase for soil properties for An-Najaf. The ArcGIS 10.5 software was used to interpolate the spatial data to produce 33 geotechnical maps for fine soil, coarse soil and USCS for 13 depth levels. For numerical soil data, Ordinary Kriging has been used for interpolation mapping of Fine and Coarse percentage data for each depth. For non-numerical (nominal) soil data (USCS class), the Indicator Kriging method is used. The results show that the coarse soil occupied 85–95% for depth 0–16 m and consist of (SP, SP-SM, SM) while fine soil occupied 5–15% consisting of (OL, CH, ML) subsequently, this soil when compacted has a permeability of pervious to semi impervious, good shearing strength, low to very low compressibility and acceptable workability as a construction material. The results also show that after 16 m depths until 26 m, the fine soil percentage increased to 40% with a coarse soil percentage of 60%, indicating changes in soil characteristics as the permeability became semi-pervious to impervious, fair shearing strength, medium compressibility and fair workability as a construction material. The study results will provide help and saving time, efforts and money in preliminary engineering designs. Validerad;2020;Nivå 2;2020-03-13 (johcin)

Brick factories distributed within the study area use fuel oil to complete the burning of the bricks, were high amounts of gases and suspended particles with different concentrations of heavy elements are produced and cause air and soil pollution. It is noted that the workers suffer from respiratory diseases and other health problems. This study is an attempt to detect the sources and concentrations of pollutants and to propose modalities for their treatment and reduction. Air and soil samples were collected from different sites in Abu Smeache brick factory in Al-Kifl area to the south of Babel city, Iraq, during two seasons (summer and winter). The process also included collecting and modelling of dust and soil samples from two depth, surface and sub-surface, to detect pollution and the mobility of heavy elements across the different depths. Heavy elements (Pb, Ni, Co), along with gases (CO, CO2, NO2, SO2) and total suspended particles (TSP) in the air, were analyzed by atomic absorption spectroscopy. The air results showed high pollution with all the studied heavy elements, while the levels of TSP and SO2 were higher than global and Iraqi limits in most of the studied stations, especially in the winter. The results also showed significant pollution in the soil with lead along with slight contamination with nickel and cobalt. Soil contamination was evaluated using several contamination indices; the values of contamination factors (CF) for the lead were very high, while CF values for nickel and copper indicated low to moderate pollution. Also, the high values of PLI ˃1 in the soil indicated high pollution with heavy elements, which provides clear evidence of the impact of industrial human activities on the environment of the region. In addition, low values of i-geo indicated a moderate contamination with lead and an unpolluted status for both nickel and copper. These results indicate a great need to develop strategies to prevent and reduce pollution by heavy metals in the areas under rapid industrial and urban development.

The area which located along the road area between the cities of Najaf and Karbala areas are very important from hydrogeological used towards the groundwater reservoir which called Dibdibba formation. The reveal part of this sandy formation allows for replenishing and keeping its water by the rainwater penetration and surface flood. Groundwater movement flows through the reservoir from the West to the East and Southeast direction, so, it is unconfined aquifer which means the top surface (water table) is open for permeable materials. This area between the two cities invested for decades due to its importance in addition to the hydrogeological feature of the water reservoirs and hydraulic specifications. Many groundwater wells were drilled in this area to use this water resource for many purposes of farming in particular. There are many water wells in this infiltrated water reservoir upper region represented by the composition Dibdibba formation have been exploited as a sandstone fan or fan-shaped (alluvial fans) according to its sedimentary environment. This water-based reservoir in part on natural nutrition where the rains start this reservoir depletion of stocks over exploited of water in addition to the low levels of nutrition and natural reservoir groundwater and the exposure portion of the formation Dibdibba Sandy helped to renew and sustain its groundwater during the penetration of rainwater and surface water. This water-based reservoir in part on natural nutrition rain then this stock began gradually decreasing and downward due to over exploitation of water in addition to low natural nutrition levels of the groundwater reservoir. Groundwater quality in this reservoir characterized to be higher concentrated with dissolved salts. The results of Water quality index (Wqi) values display that the groundwater of present study location predicted to be severely contaminated and non-suitable for drinking usage at all sites of the wells.

Al-Hawizeh Marsh is considered a major marsh in the south of Iraq with a longitude of 47° 32″–47° 45″ and latitude of 31° 30″–31° 42″, length of 80 km and width of 30 km, while the depth is from 1.5 to 4 m. It has a significant impact on the ecosystem and provides habitat for several types of living creatures. The surface water and the agricultural lands surrounding this marsh suffered from high level degrees of salinity. In the last decades, radical deterioration of water quality in this marsh happened because of the post-war-related events and several human activities. Landsat-8 data was used to predict and evaluate the spatial variation and map distributions of the salinity, SO4 and CaCO3 within Al-Hawizeh Marsh during the two seasons in the year 2017 based on the development of salinity and minerals mathematical equations. The evaluated values for salinity, SO4 and CaCO3 are found to be minimal in winter and maximum in autumn. The values of correlation coefficient (R2) between the real data and the equation results for the salinity, SO4 and CaCO3 during the two seasons are 0.95, 0.96 and 0.92, respectively.

This study was undertaken by analyzing data from satellite image (Landsat-8 OLI) and geographical information system (GIS) to find the relationship between water parameters and water indices of spectral images. The main purpose of this research was to develop a model for the physical and chemical parameters of Gharraf stream in Iraq. The water parameters used in this study included: acidity (PH), Total Dissolved Solids (T.D.S), Alkalinity(ALK), Electrical Conductivity (E.C), Calcium(Ca), Chloride (CL), Sodium (Na), Sulfate (SO4), Potassium (k), Total suspended solid (T.S.S), Total Hardness (TH).Where the samples were taken to seventeen stations with two seasons and at the same time took a satellite image on 4/FEB, 11 / MAY.GIS techniques were used in the beginning to project the coordinates of seventeen stations along the stream in Landsat-8 satellite image for extract data. Then, these data are treated in SPSS software for purpose finding correlation and regression equations. Positive strong correlations between the reflectance of the satellite image and the water parameters in 4/FEB and 11/ MAY with five stations, helped to build six regression models. These models could be used to predict these six water parameters (PH, E.c, CL, SO4, Na and K) at any point along the stream in Iraq from the satellite image directly.

In many parts of the world, groundwater quality is decreasing due to urbanization industrialization and use of agricultures in rural areas. This subject has formed an urgent need to determine the suitability of groundwater for various purposes. The aim of this study is to determine a groundwater index for groundwater use for irrigation in agriculture. The study is carried out in an agricultural area; near Al Kufa city, North of Al Najaf province, Iraq. Many chemical variables are used in this model, including (total dissolved solids TDS, electrical conductivity EC, sodium Na, potassium K and iron Fe), in addition to some of the heavy metals (cadmium Cd, lead Pb, chromium Cr, and nickel Ni), that also added to the index. The weight’s parameters are determined using analytical hierarchy process (AHP) and classified into five groups based on the human health significance of these parameters and negative effect on agriculture. The result of this study indicates that the water quality index (WQI) records values between (0 and 4.33), and in which the value of (2.16) represents the limit between unpolluted and polluted groundwater. This study confirms that all groundwater samples over the study area are suitable for agriculture. The final WQI values are exported to ArcMap environment to prepare the final WQI maps of study area.

In recent years, the problem of rising salinity levels in the Shatt al-Arab river in southern Iraq has been repeated, which has directly affected the living and health situation and the agricultural activity of these areas. Six sampling stations were selected along Shatt al-Arab to estimate the concentration of total dissolved solids (TDS) in the river; these stations included the following: Qurna, Labani, City Centre, Kateban, Corniche, and Sihan. In addition, three Landsat-8 satellite images which were taken at the same time as collected samples also used for detecting the salinity in the river. After processing of atmospheric correction and inserted remote sensing indices, the reflectance of water extracted from satellite images was used to express the spectral characteristics of different TDS concentrations. Correlation and regression were used to obtain accurate models for detecting the salinity depending on the spectral reflectance of Landsat 8 operational land image OLI. The results presented Pearson correlation (r) value of 0.70, 0.97, and 0.71, and correlation coefficient (R2) of 0.56, 0.94, and 0.85 between field data with spectral data of salinity index 2 (SI-2) derived from the green and blue bands of Landsat obtained in 2015, 2017, and 2018 respectively. In conclusion, remote sensing and GIS technologies coupled with spectral modeling are useful tools for providing a solution of future water resources planning and management, and also offer great undertaking as a means to improve knowledge of water quality and support water decision making.

Most of the third world countries having rivers passing through them suffer from the water contaminant problem. This problem is considered so difficult to get the water quality within the standard allowable limits for drinking, as well as for industrial and agricultural purposes. This research aims to assess the water quality of the Tigris River using the water quality index method and GIS software. Twelve parameters (Ca, Mg, Na, K, Cl, SO4, HCO3, TH, TDS, BOD5, NO3, and EC) were taken from 14 stations along the river. The weighted arithmetic method was applied to compute the water quality index (WQI). The interpolation method (IDW) was applied in ArcGIS 10.5 to produce the prediction maps for 12 parameters at 11 stations along the Tigris River during the wet and dry seasons in 2016. The regression prediction was applied on three stations in the Tigris River between observed values and predicted values, from the prediction maps, in both seasons. The results showed that the regression prediction for all parameters was given the acceptable values of the determination coefficient (R2). Furthermore, the state of water quality for the Tigris River was degraded downstream of the Tigris River, especially at the station (8) in Aziziyah in the wet and dry seasons and increase degradation clearly at Qurnah (Basrah province) in the south of Iraq. This paper considers the whole length of the Tigris River for the study. This is important to give comprehensive knowledge about the contamination reality of the river. Such that it becomes easier to understand the problem of contamination, analyze it, and then find the suitable treatments and solutions.

Selecting a landfill site is an optimal solution for the disposal of solid waste inAl-Mahawil Qadhaa, both to fulfill the environmental and scientific requirements,and to comply with regulations and restrictions in this Qadhaa. Presently,there is no landfill site in the area that meets the scientific site selection criteria.Therefore, in this study, two methods of multi-criteria decision-makingand Geographic Information System (GIS) were used to produce a map ofcandidate sites for landfill. Fifteen criteria were entered within GIS: groundwaterdepth, rivers, soil types; agriculture lands use, land use, elevation, slope,gas pipelines, oil pipelines, power lines, roads, railways, urban centers, villagesand archaeological sites. The Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) is the firstmethod that was applied to derive criteria weightings using the matrix of pairwisecomparisons. The second method was the Ratio Scale Weighting (RSW),which is based on experts’ opinion, in order to identify the criteria weightingsby giving a ratio score value for each criterion relative to the other criteria.Accuracy assessment (Kappa and Overall Assessment) methods were used tocompare the two raster maps which resulted from the two models, and to determinethe percentage value of matching pixels for the two maps. Two suitablecandidate sites for landfill were identified that satisfy the requirementswith an area of 2.218 km2 - 2.950 km2 in order to accommodate the solidwaste generated from the Qadhaa in the period 2020 to 2030. Validerad; 2017; Nivå 1; 2017-02-17 (andbra)

The selecting of a site for landfill is considered as a difficult process because many criteria should be involved. The main aim of establishing a landfill is to protect the human and environment. Al-Qasim district is considered as the study area in this work. It is one of the main districts in Babylon Governorate, Iraq. There is no systematic site as landfill that fulfil the environmental and scientific criteria in this area. Therefore, the most important fifteen criteria that suited the environmental requirements were selected in the current study. These criteria are: groundwater depth, urban centers, rivers, villages, soil types, elevation, roads agricultural land use, slope, land use, archaeological sites, power lines, gas pipelines, oil pipelines and railways. Two methods of multi criteria decision making AHP (analytical hierarchy process) and SRS (straight rank sum) were applied to obtain the weights of criteria in dissimilar styles. The raster maps of the selected criteria were prepared and analyzed within the GIS software. Then, the change detection method was implemented to compare the two output raster maps resulted from AHP and SRS methods. Two appropriate candidate sites for landfill were selected to accommodate the cumulative solid waste until the year 2030 in Qasim district. The areas of these sites were 2.766 km2 and 2.055 km2 respectively. Validerad;2017;Nivå 1;2017-09-04 (andbra)

Al-Hillah Qadhaa is located in the central part of Iraq. It covers an area of 908 km2 with a total population of 856,804 inhabitants. This Qadhaa is the capital of Babylon Governorate. Presently, no landfill site exists in that area based on scientific site selection criteria. For this reason, an attempt has been carried out to find the best locations for landfills. A total of 15 variables were considered in this process (groundwater depth, rivers, soil types, agricultural land use, land use, elevation, slope, gas pipelines, oil pipelines, power lines, roads, railways, urban centres, villages and archaeological sites) using a geographic information system. In addition, an analytical hierarchy process was used to identify the weight for each variable. Two suitable candidate landfill sites were determined that fulfil the requirements with an area of 9.153 km2 and 8.204 km2. These sites can accommodate solid waste till 2030.

The main objective of the paper is to create geotechnical maps for three soil chemical properties in An-Najaf and Kufa cities’ soil by utilizing of GIS tools. This properties are the chloride concentration, calcium carbonate (CaCO 3) and total soluble salts where they affect the durability of reinforced structural elements. This paper provides an easy accurate way to represent soil properties levels for different depths of soil and create reliable database that will help engineers and decision makers. The data included in this paper were collected for (464) boreholes with depths up to 35 m distributed on residential areas in all of An-Najaf and Kufa cities. Arc-Map of GIS 10.2.1 was used to produce the maps. It has been concluded that chloride content in the soil of the study area range from - 0.01 to 0.99% and with an average of 0.5. The maximum value found in at depth 4–6 m while the minimum value found in location at depth 4–6, 8–10 and 14–16 m. The chloride content in most of An-Najaf province has exceeded the permissible limit and for all, this required taking percussions to protect foundations. While calcium carbonate content in the soil of the study area range from 53 to 0.18 and with an average of 26.6. The maximum and the minimum values found at depth 4–6 m. Calcium carbonate content is within the permissible limits in most locations except in some locations. Validerad;2019;Nivå 2;2019-06-10 (oliekm)

Underground thermal energy storage (UTES) systems are well known applications around the world, due to their relation to heating ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) applications. There are six kinds of UTES systems, they are tank, pit, aquifer, cavern, tubes, and borehole. Apart from the tank, all other kinds are site condition dependent (hydro-geologically and geologically). The aquifer thermal energy storage (ATES) system is a widespread and desirable system, due to its thermal features and feasibility. In spite of all the advantages which it possesses, it has not been adopted in very shallow groundwater (less than 2 m depth) regions, till now, due to the susceptibility of the storage efficiency of these systems to the in-site parameters. This paper aims to find a reliable method that can be used to find the best location to install ATES systems. The concept of the suggested method is based on integrating three methods. They are, the analytical hierarchy process (AHP), the DRASTIC index method, and ArcMap/GIS software. The results from this method include a criterion that summarizes the best location to install an ATES system. This criterion is depicted by ArcMap/GIS software, producing raster maps that specify the best location for the storage system. The suggested method can be used to find the best location to install the thermal storage, especially in susceptible aquifers.

There is a global attention that the future energy systems will be based on renewable energy like solar and wind. The large-scale utilization of renewables in space heating and cooling requires large Thermal Energy Storage TES to overcome the varying supply and demand. The process of producing the best Underground Thermal Energy Storage UTES system pass through two steps: first, finding the best type of UTES system, second, finding the best locations to install UTES system. Both of these two steps depend extremely on the site specific parameters such that the depth to the groundwater, transmissivity, type of soil, the depth to the bedrock, and seepage velocity. The purpose of this paper is to explain some of the site specific parameters that the type of UTES-system depends on and explain the suitable type of UTES systems. This study considers Babylon province (Iraq) as study area. This province has electricity deficiency due to Heating Ventilating and Air Conditioning HVAC applications. The methodology of this study includes reviewing the literature that consider the study area, and using Arc Map/GIS to visualize some of the in-site parameters. The results indicate that the best type of UTES system for the considered region is either aquifer or pit type, due to the type of the soil and the depth to the crystalline bedrock. The hydraulic conductivity and the seepage velocity in the considered region are (0.0023–2.5) m/d and (1.3 × 10−6 – 3.45 × 10−3) m/d respectively. These conditions satisfy the standards which regard aquifer type.

The polluters of total suspended particles (TSP) and some heavy metals (Cd, Co, and Ni) concentrations were studied in the areas of Al-Fatha, Al-Alam and Baiji, Iraq. These concentrations were measured for selected 22 sample locations for two periods, January and July 2013. The analyzed values of (TSP) and (Cd) exceeded the limits of Iraqi National and the World Health Organization (WHO) for the two periods. Also, (Ni) values exceeded the limits for July only, while (Co) values were under the limits for the two periods. The difference between the two periods reflects the effect of the wind speed and direction, rainfall, and the intensity of the dust storms during the two months respectively. GIS technique makes optimal predictions possible by examining the relationships between all the sample points and producing a continuous surface of polluter’s concentration. Therefore, GIS was used to produce predictions and probabilities maps for the critical polluter values in the study area Validerad; 2016; Nivå 1; 20160128 (nadhir)

A total of 73 soil samples were initially analyzed for lead (Pb) concentration as an indicator of the environment impact of smelter activity in the Port Pirie, South Australia. Chemometric techniques were used to assess the ability of near-infrared (NIR) reflectance spectroscopy to predict soil Pb using spectrally active soil characteristics such as soil carbon (C). The result indicated a strong linear relationship between log-transformed data of soil Pb and spectral reflectance in the range between 500 and 612 nm with R2 = 0.54 and a low root-mean-square error (RMSEv = 0.38) for the validation mode with an acceptable ratio of performance to deviation and ratio of error range (1.6 and 7.7, respectively). This study suggested that NIR spectroscopy based on auxiliary spectrally active components is a rapid and noninvasive assessment technique and has the ability to determine Pb contamination in urban soil to be useful in environmental health risk assessment. Validerad;2018;Nivå 2;2018-05-21 (andbra)

Comparison of two conventional analytical techniques such as X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) for measuring Pb concentrations in soil samples was achieved using field and laboratory work. Seventy-three samples were collected from urban areas surrounding the large lead smelter at South Australia, as an indicator of the environment impact of smelter activity. Soil Pb concentrations were determined using hand-held XRF analyser under laboratory conditions. ICP-MS analysis on digested soils (using a microwave-assisted nitric acid digestion-extraction) was applied to validate p-XRF data. The analysis showed that Pb concentrations determined by XRF correlated with high linearity with Pb concentrations determined by ICP-MS measurements (R2 = 0.89). Statistical test (t test) was applied to the data of both methods applied without any significant difference between the two techniques. These results indicated that ICP-MS corroborated XRF for Pb soil measurements and suggests that XRF was a reliable and quick alternative to traditional analytical methods in studies of environmental health risk assessment, allowing for much larger sampling regimes in relatively shorter times and could be applied in the field. Validerad;2017;Nivå 2;2017-06-27 (andbra)

The Babylon Governorate is situated in the middle of Iraq. It covers an area of 5,315 km 2 and has 2,092,998 inhabitants distributed throughout its five major cities (Qadhaa). Presently, there is no landfill site in the governorate that meets the environmental criteria for the disposal of municipal and industrial waste. Consequently, GIS (geographic information system) and methods of multi-criteria decision making were used here to select the best sites in each city in the Babylon Governorate that would fulfil the environmental requirements. Two sites were chosen in each city. As the groundwater is very shallow in this area, the design should ensure against groundwater pollution by leachate from these sites. To avoid this problem, soil investigation was conducted at these sites so that the most suitable landfill design could be accomplished. The results of soil investigation in these sites include the soil profile, groundwater depth, chemical properties, allowable bearing capacity, Atterberg limits test results and material characteristics of the soil strata. From the research, it is believed that the best design is one that puts the landfill above ground. Validerad;2017;Nivå 1;2017-07-04 (andbra) Bearing capacity, Atterberg limit, landfill, Babylon, Iraq.

Iraq highly depends on its surface water resources. Now it is facing water shortage problems. For these reasons, the utilization of groundwater will be increasing with time. Karbala Governorate is located in the central part of Iraq. It covers an area of 5034 km2 and the population exceeds one million. It is characterized by an arid or semiarid environment. Karbala Governorate lack surface water resource and consequently, groundwater is the only available resource. The main groundwater aquifer within the area is Dibdibba formation. It is composed of poorly sorted sand and sand stone with gravel. In this research hydrological and hydrogeological information were used to find out the magnitude and the direction of groundwater seepage velocity. The results indicate that groundwater flow toward the flood plain to the east of the study region. The seepage velocity ranges from 0 to 0.18 m/d, with a general increase when moving from the west to the east. Validerad; 2017; Nivå 1; 2017-04-07 (rokbeg)

Groundwater is one of the main resources from the earth, especially for arid or semiarid countries. For this reason, it is very important to keep it unpolluted. Drastic Model is one of the widely used models to detect groundwater vulnerability to the contaminants that are found on ground surface. In this model, it is assumed that the vulnerability of the groundwater is affected by seven hydrological parameters. They are: depth from the surface ground to groundwater, net recharge into the aquifer from the surface, aquifer media, soil media, area topography, impact of vadose zone and aquifer hydraulic conductivity. In this study, the DRASTIC model was applied on the northern part of Babylon governorate in Iraq, to predict the vulnerability of Groundwater in that area. The results indicate that the vulnerability is very low to low grade. Validerad; 2017; Nivå 1; 2016-12-29 (andbra)

Selecting a landfill site is a difficult task because the process depends on many factors and restrictions. Landfill is an optimal solution for the disposal of solid waste in Al-Musayiab Qadhaa, which is located in the northern part of Babylon Governorate. At the moment, there is no landfill site in that area that follows the scientific selection site criteria. For this reason, in this research, fifteen variables were considered (groundwater depth, rivers, soil types; agriculture lands use, land use, elevation, slope, gas pipelines, oil pipelines, power lines, roads, railways, urban centers, villages and archeological sites) using geographic information system (GIS) to find out the best suitable landfill site. In addition, two methods of multi-criteria decision-making were used to derive weights for criterion’s maps on GIS to obtain potential landfill sites. The first method is analytical hierarchy process (AHP) which was used to identify the weight for each criterion from the matrix of pairwise comparisons. The second method was the simple additive weighting (SAW) which is a simple method to solve the problem of the selection landfill sites. After comparison of the results obtained based on combining two final maps resulted from methods of AHP and SAW using GIS environment to determine the pixels percentage of matching and non-matching for two maps, two suitable candidate landfill sites were identified that satisfy the requirements with an area of 7.965–5.952 km2. Area of these sites can accommodate the solid waste generated from the Qadhaa up to 2030. Validerad; 2017; Nivå 2; 2017-03-06 (andbra)