A GIS-based AHP Method for Groundwater Potential Zone Assessment: A Review

Scientific and academic researches and studies trying to present a multi-range of techniques and methods focusing on groundwater pollution, potentials, assessment, and prediction, Groundwater is the most important resource of fresh water now and many researchers trying to cover all about this resource to get sustainable development. This review aims to create an overview of groundwater analysis and forecasting methods. The study is based on the need to select and group research papers into best-defined methodological categories. The article gives an overview of recent advancements in groundwater potential zone analysis approaches, as well as ongoing research objectives based on that overview. This review has overviewed papers and researches been published last decade 2010 -2020 have been done depending on the data sources from the global online database, which could obtain many papers and research studying the groundwater potential zones and other aspects related to groundwater. The aim of reviewing multiple types of research and papers on determining groundwater potential zones by applying the best techniques and selecting the most suitable factors that affect groundwater potential zones.

Evaluation of Physical, Spatial and Demographic Expansions in Ilam City from 1956 to 2016

The physical and spatial expansion of cities, which often taken place without planning, caused numerous environmental, health, economic and social problems. This study investigates the physical, spatial, and demographic development and expansion of Ilam city in Iran for over 60 years. To achieve these goals, library studies, data analysis, and field studies were applied. The process of development in Ilam and its demographic changes from 1956 to 2016 has been presented, and then, the spatial-physical expansion of the city is evaluated. The results showed that several factors had impacted the physical development and expansion of Ilam. The highest growth was observed between 1976 and 1986. Also, the development of the city has been more horizontal. The study results show the correlation, intensity, extension, and mechanism of conversion and land-use change in Ilam city and embody its spatial-physical expansion.

A different perspective towards urban planning based on GIS and VGI techniques

Urban planning is considered one of the most critical topics in the design and development strategies of cities. There are a vast amount of urban planning rule sets that focus on dominating the geometrical perspective on other approaches when it comes to planning decisions. In this paper, a different point of view towards urban planning is suggested concentrating on the topological analysis and relation between city elements. Streets of cities are chosen to reflect this topological relation and to investigate the topological relations to the limits; six different sized cities were selected for analysis; three large cities and three relatively small ones. Results of study uncovered the hierarchical pattern underlying in street structure of cities; analyses showed that street networks in large cities have a higher degree of hierarchical level than in relatively small cities. Urban planners can get benefit from the results of analyses in this study to make better planning decisions in large or small cities. The paper provides analysis results towards achieving the optimum goals of urban planning to make cities more living and more efficient.

Mapping Ecosystem Service: Challenges and Solutions

The concept of ecosystem service (ES) was originally developed to illustrate the benefits that natural ecosystems generate for society and to raise awareness for biodiversity and ecosystem conservation. In recent years, geographical information system (GIS) has become a powerful tool for mapping (ES) within a landscape, which visualizes spatial and temporal patterns and changes in ecosystems and their services.Mapping (ES) is necessary for the progress of strategies that will guarantee their future supply and to support the policies in a more effective way. The comprehensive literature review were conducted from international databases such as Elsevier, Springer, Wiley, and Google Scholar. We used the key terms including ‘mapping’, ‘maps’, ‘ES or ecosystem service, ‘ecosystem functions’, ‘landscape functions’, ‘evaluation of ES’, and ‘assessment of services’. in order to identify mapping ecosystem services and their challenges and opportunities. In total, 65 research papers were found firstly, which 34 of them were selected for reviewing. The most mportant challenges are insuffieicnet generation of ES in the context of managed systems, need to estimate associations among indicators of (ES) incomplete understanding of the nature of associations among services, and the lack of a general numerical outline to address these relations.

Impact of land cover change on land surface temperature over Greater Beirut Area – Lebanon

Remote sensing (RS) technology has been used together with geographic information systems (GIS) to determine the LC types, retrieve LST, and analyze their relationships. The term Greater Beirut Area (GBA) is used to refer to the city of Beirut and its suburbs which witnessed rapid urban growth, after the end of the civil war, in the last decade of the twentieth century, due to the increase in the number of its inhabitants, and the prosperity and development of sectors such as; industrial, trade, tourism, and construction. These factors led to a wide change in the land cover (LC) types and increased land surface temperature LST. The results showed an increase in built-up areas by 29.1%, and agricultural lands by 6%, while bare land, forests, and seawater decreased by 28.5%, 4.9%, and 1.9%, respectively. These changes caused large differences in the LST between built-up areas and other LC types. The highest LST recorded was in built-up areas (33.03°C in 1985, and 34.01°C in 2020), followed by bare lands (32.61 °C in 1985 and 33.49°C in 2020), cropland (31.23°C in 1985 and 32.17°C in 2020), forest (30.08°C in 1985 and 30.47°C in 2020), and water (24.97°C in 1985 and 28.15°C in 2020). Consequently, converting different LC types into built-up areas led to increases in LST and changed microclimate.

The septoria leaf blotch of wheat in Central Kazakhstan: prognosis, evaluation and monitoring with remotely sensed data

Fungal diseases represent a widely spread natural phenomenon affecting many of wild and domesticated plants. In nature, all plant species forms plant communities of a mixed character, and the spatial pattern of dominant species is usually irregular and spotted. Some species are impregnable to a certain infection, which provides a kind of natural barrier to the infection spread within the natural community. Under the agricultural environment, when the single plant species may occupy a huge area, the species-specific parasite takes a great advantage to develop focal outbreaks and fast spreading of the infection within the area. The concentration of vulnerable plants and the absence of natural barriers within the agricultural areas provokes outbreaks of fungal diseases, that may have highly harmful consequences and result in significant yield losses. One of the purposes of the satellite optical data is an operative, cost-effective diagnostic and, in combination with climatic datasets and crop rotation information, a prognosis of fungal disease appearance and severity. In this paper, we describe the system of prognostic and monitoring measures to control the fungal diseases of wheat in Central Kazakhstan with special attention to septoria leaf blotch. The prognostic procedure provides a map of the probability of septoria leaf blotch appearance. The prognosis takes into consideration the combination of three main variables: the model of ecological niche for Septoria, the presence of wheat residue, and Vegetation Condition Index counted for the late spring (May) of the current year. The new spectral index, introduced in this paper, is the core component of monitoring activity. The index is sensitive to septoria leaf blotch severity at middle to late (stages 8-11, accordingly Feekes growth stages) periods of wheat development. Several other indices (RETA, VSDI, vegetation indices) may be of help in providing information on the spatial unevenness of wheat crops that may indicate the presence of fungal infection.

Measuring Spatial Justice Indices in the Traditional Islamic Cities by Using GIS, An-Najaf Holy City, Iraq A Case Study

Iraq includes several traditional Islamic cities, and they share many spatial and social characteristics. A question has often been raised about these cities' ability to achieve spatial justice for their current residents. Therefore, the research aims to answer this question by following a specific methodology based on the derivation of factors and indices of spatial justice through previous literature, then measuring the indices derived in the ancient Najaf city as an example of traditional Islamic cities. The research found that there are five main factors for spatial justice, which are: spatial diversity, spatial connectivity, spatial resilience, spatial security, and spatial empowerment, which in turn are divided into ten indices. These indices were measured in Najaf city. It became clear that the mixed land use index, spatial connectivity indices, and spatial security indices were well achieved, while the mixed residential patterns and spatial empowerment indices did not achieve well. As for spatial resilience, changes occurred in the land uses. However, these changes were not the result of social and cultural changes or according to the city residents' needs. Instead, they occurred due to economic changes that primarily serve the visitors and arrivals to the city.

Potential of Multispectral Satellite Data for Superficial Iron Oxide Detection in Sulaimaniyah, Iraqi Kurdistan Region

This study primarily investigates the total (Fe) iron presence in Sulaimaniyah Governorate, the Iraqi Kurdistan Region (IKR), which has an abundance of iron mines. Spatial quantification and frequent monitoring of mineral existence in the soil are essential in the mining regions. To achieve this goal, a remote sensing technique was utilized to predict soil minerals, particularly iron existence in the study area using a multispectral satellite image, Landsat-7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+). A robust methodology was perceived and developed from image processing to estimate and map iron oxides rich soils, and soil’s spectral indices were obtained after algorithms applied in processing on the bands of Landsat image. Soil samples were collected and analyzed in the laboratory to determine the chemical, physical, and mineralogical characteristics of soils. Correlation coefficients were carried out between soil properties and spectral band values retrieved from image analysis to examine the band potentials of Landsat. The statistical results showed that there was a significant relationship between the 3rd band of the ETM+ image and each of the total iron (R2 = 0.643), the free iron oxide (R2 = 0.659), and sand particles (R2 = 0.561). The predicted soil mineral maps were generated for the study area to visualize the study site's soil characterization and total iron spread. This study results could help primarily identify the spatial distribution of some soil properties in Sulaimaniyah, Iraq.

Spatial Analysis of Noise in Kufa University (Kufa River Campus) using GIS

Noise refers to unwanted sound, which causes great discomfort to the ears, and is usually measured in decibels. Very high levels of sound above 100 dB cause permanent hearing loss. This study deals with effect of noise in the academic areas, University of Kufa, Kufa river campus (Faculty of Urban Planning, Faculty of Law, Faculty of Archeology). Kufa river campus area is exposed to several external noise types. Noise field data have been measured and collected for 98 station points. The noise intensity ratio was measured using the Sound Level Meter at three different times during the working hours in the morning hours (8.30-10.30), at noon (10.30-12.30), and in the afternoon from (12.30-2.30). The data were analyzed using the Excel program (percentile method) to obtain a noise level values at 10%, 50%, and 90% of data after arranging it ascendingly. The equivalent noise level (Leq) is calculate as well. The equivalent noise level data converts to GIS program form mapping and studying the spatial variation of noise intensity using a Spline interpolation method. The results showed that the effect of external noise is much greater than the effect of internal noise. The highest noise intensity at the points near the fence reached 94 decibels, and the lowest noise ratio was in the center of the faculty of Physical Planning, and the points near the green trees reached 45.1 db.

Comparison between Mineralogical Properties of Oak Forest and Un-Cultivated Soils in Iraqi Kurdistan Region

This study was conducted to identify the mineralogical properties of oak forest and un-cultivated soils at 12 locations in the Iraqi Kurdistan region, which included (Brifca, Gara, and Matin) in Duhok governorate, (Awagrd, Bilah, and Malakan) in Erbil governorate, (Badawan, Bardanga, and Chwarta) in Sulaimani Governorate and (Bakhakon, Hawar, and Sartak) in Halabja governorate. Clay minerals were identified from X-ray diffraction data and peaks. Peak height is used as a rough indicator of the relative abundance of minerals. In general, the expansion of 14A to 17A in ethylene glycol treatment was not detected because measuring started from 5 so thats why we cannot be differentiated between Chlorite and Smectite in that treatment. Swelling chlorite was the dominant mineral in these soils. While the miner clay mineral at that locations were Kaolinite. Mica was identified at all locations, while the dominant type of Mica at forest soils was Muscovite which was obtained from 6 sites, while Mica Biotite was obtained from 4 sites, but in un-cultivated sites, both types of mica recorded at 5 sites.