Evaluation water scarcity based on GIS estimation and climate-change effects: A case study of Thi-Qar Governorate, Iraq

• Published in: Cogent engineering Vol. 9; no. 1
• Main Authors: Ethaib, Saleem, Zubaidi, Salah L., Al-Ansari, Nadhir
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Abingdon Cogent 2022; Taylor & Francis Ltd; Taylor & Francis Group
• Subjects: Climate change; Data acquisition; Decision making; Drinking water; Geoteknik; GIS; Hydrological analysis; Hydrology; Image acquisition; Landsat; Marshes; Pollutants; Satellite imagery; Soil Mechanics; Spatial data; Surface water; Water quality; water scarcity; Websites; Iraq
• ISSN: 2331-1916; 2331-1916
• DOI: 10.1080/23311916.2022.2075301

This work aims to evaluate water scarcity in Thi-Qar governorate, Iraq, based on GIS estimation, environmental data, climate-change effects, and detection of the changes in marshes over the last three decades (1991-2021). The methodology process included collecting and analysing the related data sets such as water quality indicators, surface water quantity, climatic data, and Landsat's images. GIS-based data and spatial data were acquired from the USGS website. Arc GIS 10.4.1 software was used to create a hydrological analysis. The results showed that generally, in Iraq, the annual volume of water available per person is 1,390.95 m
3
/cap/year, which is lower than the threshold for water scarcity (1700 m
3
/cap/year). The average daily potable water per person in Thi-Qar governorate was 284 L/cap/day, lower than the general average daily potable water per person of Iraq (340 L/cap/day). Meanwhile, 6% of the months along 1998-2018 did not meet the water demands. Water quality tests exhibited some high amounts of pollutants in drinking water, e.g., biological pollution was recorded in 55% of the total number of annual samples. Landsat's images illustrated a high variation in water areas of marshes over the selected period, whereas the highest marshes area was 1548.21 km
2
in 1991 compared to the lowest area, 65.45 km
2
found in 1999. To sum up, the research outcomes revealed that the study area faced a serious water scarcity, which had a negative impact on the local people. Also, this research offered a scientific view for the decision-makers to mitigate and manage the water scarcity problem.