Author:
Muter Sara Ali,Al-Timimi Yaseen K.,Al-Jiboori Monim H.
Abstract
Abstract
Drought refers to a complex natural disaster that causes serious environmental, social, and economic impacts worldwide. Considering the severe impact of drought on Iraq, it is very important to identify the effects of drought in different sectors. This paper points to examine the drought levels in Iraq utilizing Remote Sensing and GIS Techniques. The objective of this study was to analysis the spatial and temporal extent and characteristics of drought events in Iraq using the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), which is widely used in soil and agricultural drought research. Therefore, long-term monthly rainfall records from 38 rainfall measurement stations across Iraq for period (1980–2021) were used for the study. Based on SPI, drought characteristics were analyzed after dividing Iraq into three regions North, Middle and South regions. The results indicate that droughts are more frequent and severe in northern Iraq. The severity of observed drought events increases over time in both severity and duration, from normal to moderate to extreme drought. The maximum SPI severity was 135 in Duhook station, the maximum duration was 10 months, and the intensity was -3.05. Also, The classification analysis showed that the proportion of moderate drought was 80% and most of the dry years belonged to the moderate drought category, while severe drought and extreme drought were 19% and 8% respectively out of the total dry years. According to SPI analysis, the results showed that all stations experienced drought in 1998, 2012, 2018 and 2021. The results of the SPI analysis show that the country has been facing frequent, irregular and recurrent droughts for the past 42 years. The driest year was 2021, the most severe drought ever experienced across Iraq. The results of this study will help planners develop informed water resources policies and will also be useful for predictive systems that provide advance warning.