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Groundwater in Iraq is considered to be an alternative water resource, especially for areas far away from surface water. Groundwater is affected by many factors including climate change, industrial activities, urbanization, and industrialization. In this study, the effect of artificial recharge on the quantity of groundwater in the Dibdibba unconfined aquifer in Iraq was simulated using a groundwater modeling system (GMS). The main raw water source used in the artificial recharge process was the reclaimed water output (tertiary treatment) from the main wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) in Kerbala, with 20 injection wells. After calibration and validation of the three-dimensional numerical model used in this study and taking wastewater recharge rates into account, two different scenarios were applied to obtain the expected behavior of the aquifer when the groundwater levels were augmented with 5% and 10% of the daily outflow production of the WWTP in Kerbala. The model matched the observed head elevations with R2 = 0.951 for steady state and R2= 0.894 for transient simulations. The results indicate that the injection of treated water through 20 wells raised the water table in more than 91 and 136 km2 for 5000 and 10,000 m3/day pumping rates, respectively. Moreover, increasing the volume of water added to the aquifer could lead to establishing new agricultural areas, spanning more than 62 km2, extending about 20 km along the river.

Iraq is located in a water-stressed area with little of its own water resources. This means that groundwater is one of the main water resources for this region, this true for other countries in the Middle East. The impact of global warming and climate change in the future, through increases in temperature and fluctuations in rainfall, will escalate water scarcity and the degradation of the quality of water across different water resources. In the current study, the impact of future global warming and climate change on groundwater natural recharge in an unconfined aquifer (Umm Er Radhuma), in the Western Desert of Iraq, was assessed using the simulation tool WetSpass. Future climatic parameters pertaining to the study area, were predicted by downscaling a General Circulation Model (GCM), the second Canadian Earth System Model (CanESM2). CanESM2 was applied to two expected emission representative concentration pathway scenarios; medium RCP4.5 and high RCP8.5, across a period spanning 2020 to 2099, in seven meteorological stations distributed throughout the study region. Based on the statistical indicators from the validation process, the downscaling modeling operation was deemed efficient at predicting climate parameters (average temperature, precipitation and wind speed) during the chosen period. The calibrated future simulations scenarios projected that precipitation will decrease by 9.2% and 14.1% for RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 emissions scenarios, respectively. The temperature will increase by 0.96 °C under RCP4.5 and 2.05 °C for RCP8.5. Annual groundwater recharge is predicted to decrease by 13.6% and 21.2%, under RCP4.5 and RCP8.5 emissions scenarios respectively, by the end of the present century.

Concrete elements play an effective role in stilling basin design in terms of enhancing the dissipation of energy to prevent immoderate scouring of downstream structures. Proper appurtenances, such as wedge-shaped splitter blocks, baffle walls, inverted t-sections, rectangular walls, inverted L sections, and impact walls, are thus utilised with circular pipe outlets to create stilling basins that are shorter yet more effective, and thus more economical. This research was based on numerical analysis of stilling basins using FLOW-3D software; the resulting Froude numbers were compared with the Froude number of a case study, a stilling basin manhole created by the Karbala Government. This research thus examined the influence of Froude number, the arrangement and location of dissipators, and the height of the pipe inlet under different hydraulic condition in order to better simulate stilling basin models. The turbulent energy dissipation was found to vary from 16% to 85%. The results from the models showed that L-sections offered maximum turbulent energy dissipation (ΔE/E1), while the rectangular wall shape gave minimum turbulent energy dissipation (ΔE/E1). It was also observed that the maximum turbulent kinetic energy almost always occurred in the initial sections, with flow becoming generally less turbulent at the end sections. Thus, at the end of all stilling basins, the turbulent kinetic energy dissipation and turbulent kinetic energy profiles became more uniform. The proposed numerical simulation using FLOW-3D was shown to be a reliable tool for predicting and discussing the turbulent energy dissipation in stilling basins. Further conclusions included the fact that the maximum turbulent energy dissipation (ΔE/E1) increases as values of Fr increase. The results of this research could thus help hydraulic designers to consider their selections for the optimum design of stilling basins more carefully.

Storm networks, as with all urban infrastructure elements, are important to life in society. One of the most important problems facing such networks is the clogging of pipes due to sediment inlet into the sewage systems, which can cause flooding during heavy rain. This study aims to improve the efficiency of storm networks by using a new filter. In this study, a model of a network of pipes was built up to simulate rain flow over a street of two lanes. The first lane contained a filter and the second lane contained a manhole. The percentage of sediment passing from the manhole to the filter was calculated and compared in terms of the effects of several variables, such as the intensity of rainfall and the street slope. The results showed that the passing ratio from the filter to manhole was 0.28 at a low rain intensity of 30 mm/hr and 0.13 at a high rain intensity of 58 mm/hr. The passing ratio from filter to manhole was 0.21 and 0.12 for small and big lengths of filter, respectively, while the passing ratio at small and big bed slopes was 26 and 13, respectively.

The control of the urban flooding is one of the major challenges currently facing decision makers and municipalities. Flooding rates increase positively with increases in urbanisation, climate change, and a lack of consideration when using drainage networks. In the Middle East, and in Iraq especially, research in the field of flood control has been rare prior to this study. This study thus aims to provide technical support for decision makers by offering a proposed solution to mitigate flooding in a case study in Kerbala, Iraq. A storm-water management model [SWMM] has been utilised to check the extent to which the proposed solution will mitigate the flooding in the study area. SWMM was used to simulate the network in the study area utilising hourly precipitation intensity data from 2008 to 2016, and with the inclusion of estimated illegitimate sewage quantities. The results indicated that the solution was effective, and the percentage of sewer holes flooding under maximum rainfall intensity of 33.5 mm/hr saw a decrease from 48% to 33%; flooding occurred in the study area only with discharges greater than 0.04 m3/sec, and the flooding duration also decreased from 72 hours to 26 hours.