Geomorphological-environmental potentials and their importance in establishing natural reserves in western Iraq using GIS.

Abstract

Iraq extends over an area estimated at (438,317 square kilometers), while the desert occupies its western part (Western & Southern Desert) with an area of more than 55% of the country’s area. With the diversity of its topography in the region, as well as its geographical isolation and its containment of important & different environmental patterns, this helped to provide natural habitats for the biodiversity conservation in it. This opens the way for the establishment of natural reserves, which must be in correlation with the area of the country on the one hand, and the international standards that most countries in the world follow, including neighboring Iraq, on the other hand.Given the large area of the study area, geographic information systems (GIS) have been used to facilitate the study and obtain accurate data that contribute to determining the areas of natural reserves in it. The importance of using these applications also lies in the ease of calculating the precise areas of the natural reserve and determining the extensions that they must be on, and the ground forms and water resources that are important to the sustainability of the reserve. In addition to the possibility of using this data in proposing places to establish some earthen-concrete dams for reserving and storing rainwater and creating lakes, which also have importance using it in re-injecting freshwater into groundwater reservoirs in the region for their continuity, and thus permanence of life in them. Based on that, the study proposed the establishment of 5 large natural reserves, in addition to many small nature reserves, which represent about 25% of the area’s area, with an area of more than 55 thousand km2.The importance of using these computer technologies also lies in the possibility of linking spatial data on natural reserves with the WEBGIS system. This facilitates the process of accessing the data of that reserves and thus using it in developing the reserves in the rest of Iraq particularly, as well as contributing to the development of nature reserves worldwide in general.