Spatial prediction and classification of water quality parameters for irrigation use in the euphrates river (IRAQ) using gis and satellite image analyses

Abstract

This study was conducted by analyzing data from satellite image and geographical information system (GIS) to classify water quality parameters of Euphrates River in Iraq for irrigation use. The main purpose of this research was to develop water quality classifi cation models for Euphrates River, Iraq, using remote sensing. The water quality parameters used in this study included total dissolved solids (TDS), chlorides (Cl - ), electrical conductivity (EC), and sodium adsorption ratio (SAR). The classifi cation models were used for spatial prediction of these four parameters to determine the water’s suitability for irrigation use from the satellite image. GIS techniques were used in the beginning to project the coordinates of 16 stations along the River in LANDSAT satellite image for Iraq map. Positive strong correlations between digital numbers of the satellite image at Band 2 with the water quality parameters in December, 2009, helped to build four regression models between these two variables. These models could be used to predict these four water quality parameters (TDS, Cl - , EC, and SAR) at any point along the River in Iraq from the satellite image directly. The next stage depends on satellite image analyses for the sake of building water quality classifi cation models for Euphrates River on the satellite image to classify each of these water quality parameters according to irrigation use. These water quality classifi cation models can be used to manage the agriculture along the basin of the River and to discover the locations of pollution in the River. The general objective of this research is attaining a classifi cation model that supports the identifi cation, characterization and monitoring of water quality parameters that have an infl uence in irrigation.