Climate Change and Its Impact on The Expansion of The Phenomenon of Sand Dunes and Desertification of Agricultural Lands in Iraq for The Period 1984- 2022 (Governorates of Al-Qadisiyah, Al-Muthanna, and Dhi Qar)

Abstract

Background: The present research aims to investigate the relationship between the phenomenon of desertification of agricultural lands and the expansion of the phenomenon of dunes in Iraqi Mesopotamia (central and southern Iraq), the phenomenon of global climate change, and the regional policies of the upstream countries neighboring Iraq. Method: The study uses, a monitoring process carried out using the data of satellite images of the Landsat series, for the period from 1984 to 2022, by ArcGIS program, with the tool of supervised classification. Results: Obviously, the danger of climate change and its effects on Iraq is shown in the results of this study, which showed that the fertile agricultural lands that were deserted constituted about 45% of the total lands until July 2022, including (16.67% of the total region) dunes or heavily decertified lands. The percentage of cultivated agricultural lands has deteriorated to 42%, a very serious decline compared to 1998 when the rate was more than 80%. Moreover, the most dangerous environmental situation right now is represented by the loss of more than half of its water bodies, as it currently (2022) constitutes only 12.47% of the study area, while it represented 26.9% of the study area in 1984. Conclusion: Based on the study results, we find out the annual precipitation rates are the climatic factor strongly affecting, the decline or expansion of the phenomenon of dunes, besides the neighboring country policies (Türkiye and Iran)