د. احمد هاشم عبدالحسين السلطاني

Land cover information is essential in European Union spatial management, particularly that of invasive species, natural habitats, urbanization, and deforestation; therefore, the need for accurate and objective data and tools is critical. For this purpose, the European Union’s flagship program, the Corine Land Cover (CLC), was created. Intensive works are currently being carried out to prepare a new version of CLC+ by 2024. The geographical, climatic, and economic diversity of the European Union raises the challenge to verify various test areas’ methods and algorithms. Based on the Corine program’s precise guidelines, Sentinel-2 and Landsat 8 satellite images were tested to assess classification accuracy and regional and spatial development in three varied areas of Catalonia, Poland, and Romania. The method is dependent on two machine learning algorithms, Random Forest (RF) and Support Vector Machine (SVM). The bias of classifications was reduced using an iterative of randomized training, test, and verification pixels. The ease of the implementation of the used algorithms makes reproducing the results possible and comparable. The results show that an SVM with a radial kernel is the best classifier, followed by RF. The high accuracy classes that can be updated and classes that should be redefined are specified. The methodology’s potential can be used by developers of CLC+ products as a guideline for algorithms, sensors, and the possibilities and difficulties of classifying different CLC classes.

Groundwater is an important resource that can be used for various purposes. Various factors can change the chemistry of the GW, such as the chemical composition of an aquifer as well as the leaching of human waste into groundwater. The study area is a barren land covered by some sabkhas, in addition to some agricultural fields. The study aims to assess groundwater quality for drinking purposes using the Water Quality Index. The groundwater is chemically heterogeneous and has a wide quality range from very poor to excellent. Evaporation appears to be the controlling factor among the other shallow waters, while relatively deep water is related to rock-soil dominance. Rocks, land use and land cover have helped control the groundwater quality. Moreover, the heavy use of fertilizers, pesticides and irrigation, in addition to the presence of sabkhas, contributed to the deterioration of the groundwater quality. The water-rock interaction and evaporation are the dominant mechanisms that are controlling the groundwater quality in the study area.

Oil seep samples from Abu-Jir Fault Zone (AJFZ) were geochemically characterized to determine the level of biodegradation and the depositional environment of correlative source rocks. For this purpose, saturated and aromatic biomarkers and stable carbon isotopes of thirteen samples were analyzed and measured. Saturated hydrocarbons of the AJFZ are low; whereas polar fractions are relatively high. Normal alkanes and isoprenoids of these oil seeps are totally removed; steranes are still intact in some samples, and slightly to heavily degraded in other samples; whereas hopanes are intact These criteria indicate that these samples are moderately to heavily biodegraded. low C24/C23, high C22/C21 tricyclic terpanes and C29/C30 hopane ratios suggest that these oil seeps were generated from carbonate source rocks. In addition, the high C35/C34 hopanes and homohopane index values suggest deposition …

The presence of an economical solution to predict soil behaviour is essential for new construction areas. This paper aims to investigate the ultimate interpolation method for predicting the soil bearing capacity of An-Najaf city-Iraq based on field investigation information. Firstly, the engineering bearing capacity was calculated based on the in-site N-SPT values using dynamic loading for 464 boreholes with depths of 0–2 m, using the Meyerhof formula. The data then were classified and imported to the GIS program to apply the interpolation methods. Four deterministic and two geostatistical interpolation methods were applied to produce six bearing capacity maps. The statistical analyses were performed using two methods: the common cross-validation method by the coefficient of determination (R2) and root mean square error (RMSE), where the results showed that ordinary kriging (OK) is the ultimate method with the …

Iraq is located between latitudes 29o 00′ to 37o 15′N and longitudes 38o 45′ to 48o 25′E and covering an area of 438,320 km2. The topography of Iraq consists of alluvial plain in the middle and south parts and desert plateau in the west as well as rising terrain to the mountain ranges in north and northeast parts of Iraq. The geographical location and topographic diversity are induced a climate variation over Iraq. The current study aims to use the standardized precipitation index (SPI) in the evaluation of drought conditions based on long-term monthly precipitation data during the period between 1980 and 2010, collected from 18 weather stations. SPI values at five accumulated periods, i.e., 3, 6, 9, 12, and 24-month are calculated using SPI software developed by National Drought Mitigation Center, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Average SPI values and SPI frequencies for wet and dry conditions are …

Seismic vulnerability is very important for buildings, especially old and dilapidated buildings that did not take into account the impact of earthquakes. In the past years, the seismic effect has not been taken into account, and recently Iraq has experienced a growing seismic activity. For this reason, it is crucial to create a seismic database for all cities. The present paper used SPT-N test results to assess seismic vulnerability for Al-Najaf city by producing five geotechnical maps using the GIS program for all seismic design categories. The data utilized in this research are obtained from 130 boreholes at 30 m depth distributed in the study area. The results show that the new RC frames must be designed as moment-resisting frames to resist future earthquakes. All the existing RC buildings are vulnerable to earthquake effects and need to be strengthened to act as seismic-resistant systems. The strengthened structure …