scholarly journals Drought Spatiotemporal Characteristics Based on a Vegetation Condition Index in Erbil, Kurdistan Region, Iraq

2021 ◽  
pp. 4545-4556
Author(s):  
Heman Abdulkhaleq A. Gaznayee ◽  
Ayad M. Fadhil Al-Quraishi ◽  
Ahmed Hashim A. Al-Sulttani
Keyword(s):  
Condition Index ◽  
Drought Severity ◽  
Yield Reduction ◽  
Kurdistan Region ◽  
Economic Sectors ◽  
Ecological Variables ◽  
Vegetation Condition ◽  
Vegetation Condition Index ◽  
Digital Elevation ◽  
Elevation Model

     Drought is a complex phenomenon that has severe impacts on the environment. Vegetation and its conditions are very sensitive to drought effects. This study aimed to monitor and assess the drought severity and its relationships to some ecological variables in ten districts of Erbil Governorate (Kurdistan Region), Iraq, throughout 20 years (1998-2017). The results revealed that droughts frequently hit Erbil throughout the study period. The Landsat time-series- based on Vegetation Condition Index (VCI) significantly correlated with precipitation, Digital Elevation Model (DEM), and latitude. Extreme VCI-based drought area percentages were recorded in 1999, 2000, 2008, and 2011 by 43.4%, 67.9%, 43.3%, and 40.0%, respectively. The highest crop yield reduction in the study area occurred mainly in 2000, 2008, and 2012 due to low precipitation rates. These results reveal the capability of the VCI for drought characteristics and highlighting relationships with some ecological variables, which provide vital information to the decision-makers, environmental, and economic sectors.

scholarly journals The Impact of Spatiotemporal Changes in Land Development (1984–2019) on the Increase in the Runoff Coefficient in Erbil, Kurdistan Region of Iraq

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 1302 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andam Mustafa ◽  
Michał Szydłowski
Keyword(s):  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Land Development ◽  
Flash Floods ◽  
Kurdistan Region ◽  
Lulc Changes ◽  
Digital Elevation ◽  
Large Expansion ◽  
Spatiotemporal Changes ◽  
Elevation Model ◽  
The Impact

Nowadays, geospatial techniques are a popular approach for estimating urban flash floods by considering spatiotemporal changes in urban development. In this study, we investigated the impact of Land Use/Land Cover (LULC) changes on the hydrological response of the Erbil basin in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI). In the studied area, the LULC changes were calculated for 1984, 1994, 2004, 2014 and 2019 using the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and satellite images. The analysis of LULC changes showed that the change between 1984 and 2004 was slower than that between 2004 and 2019. The LULC analysis revealed a 444.4% growth in built-up areas, with a 60.4% decrease in agricultural land between 1984 and 2019. The influence of LULC on urban floods caused by different urbanization scenarios was ascertained using the HEC-GeoHMS and HEC-HMS models. Over 35 years, there was a 15% increase in the peak discharge of outflow, from 392.2 m3/s in 1984 to 450 m3/s in 2014, as well as the runoff volume for a precipitation probability distribution of 10%, which increased from 27.4 mm in 1984 to 30.9 mm in 2014. Overall, the probability of flash floods increased in the center of the city due to the large expansion of built-up areas.

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