Hydrochemical Evaluation of the Tigris River from Kut to Amara sites, Iraq

Abstract

The Tigris River is one of the longest rivers in Western Asia and runs through heavily populated areas, especially in Kut and Amara Cities, with nearly 8 million inhabitants. Due to the climatic change and altering the upstream hydrological conditions along the Tigris River, its discharge has severely declined in the last decade, combined with the climate change impact. Hence, studying the impact of climate change on the river and decreasing the annual flow is vital to understand their effect on the river water quality between Kut and Amara sites. The data of this study covers annual flow conditions of the Tigris River, the total dissolved solids (TDS), and the main ions on monthly bases for the period 2005-2010 for the two sites: Kut and Amara. These data were used to establish the relationships between water discharge (m3/sec) with total dissolved solids (mg/l) and main cations (Na+, Ca2+, Mg2+, and K+) and anions (Cl‾, SO42, HCO3‾). The Climatological data for 1980-2020 show that the annual rainfall values for Kut and Amara sites range between 301-577 mm and 69-200 mm respectively. The annual mean minimum temperature of the Kut ranges between15.7-18.8Co. For Amara, it ranges between 16.6-20.7 Co. It is noticed that the rainfall values of both sites decreased over time, and the temperature is constantly increasing due to the climate change effects over the years. The average annual flow of the Tigris River at Kut site ranged from 13 to 367 m3/sec with an average of 233.2 m3/sec, and for Amara ranged between 22 and 101 m3/sec with an average of 50.2 m3/sec. The mean annual TDS ranged from 466 to 1150 mg/l, with an average mean annual 758.30 mg/l for Kut station. For Amara, it is ranged between 634 and 2075 mg/l with an average of 1168.61 mg/l. The decrease in the Tigris River discharge affects the chemistry. Calcium, magnesium, and sulfate ions in Kut station are dominated. While at Amara, sodium and sulfate ions are dominant. Such variation is related to the decrease in the Tigris River discharge and the effect of the dissolution of ions from the geological outcrops by the action of natural waters. Moreover, the entry of the transported dissolved load, the city’s sewage, and the agricultural lands’ water that flows into the river increase as the transportation distance increase from Kut to Amara.

Employing Remote Sensing Technologies and Geographic Information in the Hydrological Analysis of the Hilla River Valley in Babylon Governorate

“…The imaginary results showed that the highest percentage of the flow direction was towards the East direction with a rate of 24.94% from the rest of the directions, followed by the direction of the flow facing the south with a percentage of 19.55% from the other directions, and this does not contradict the nature of the study area and the surface of Iraq. We note Figure (5). In general, the results indicate that most of the slopes were towards the north in general, as they receive more solar radiation than the rest of the directions.…”

“…[4] indicated the possibility of using the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) as primary data and the Arc GIS 9.3 geographic information systems program as a tool for measuring and analyzing the hydrological characteristics of the Dibdiba Formation Basin. [5] used the extension (Arc HYDRO) within the GIS program environment to determine the hydrological characteristics such as (drainage network, morphological characteristics of valleys, area of secondary basins of the Lesser Zab River Basin and streams lengths) from the Digital Elevation Model. While [6] conducted the possibility of employing Technologies Remote Sensing and Geographic Information Systems by creating a geomorphological spatial database for the Horan Valley, which is the largest valley in the Western Desert, and used the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) to measure morphometric characteristics, whether they are spatial, morphological, or hydrological, using ArcGIS software.…”

Rainfall Prediction and Runoff Modelling under Climate Change Scenarios for Tigris River from Mosul to Baghdad Cities

“…These shortages are primarily related to the southeastern Anatolia Project (GAP), Turkey's projects by building many dams on the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, besides the diversion of many tributaries from the Iranian sides. The second is the effect of climatic change, which has impacted stream flow and the amount of runoff [3,4]. Iraq has experienced drought periods in the last few years [5,6].…”