This study assessed the temporal and spatial water quality variability to reveal the characteristics of the Shatt Al-Arab River, Basrah, Iraq. A total of 14 water quality parameters (water temperature (T), pH, electrical conductivity (EC), Alkanets (Alk), total dissolved solids (TDS), turbidity (Tur), total hardness (TH), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), chloride (Cl), sulphate (SO4), total suspended solids (TSS), sodium (Na), and potassium (k)) were analyzed Use of multivariate statistical methods in a total of three stations for the period 2016-2017. In this study was use a statistical approach to determine the water quality using the Pearson Correlation Index (PCI), Principal component analysis (PCA), and Factor Analysis (FA) were used to analyze the data. Main water pollutant sources were wastewater from agricultural drainage and industrial wastewater. Significant relationships recorded between the investigated parameters based on the results of PCI, at the 0.01 and 0.05 significance levels. Per the FA results, 77.1 % of the total variance explained by two factors.
The published studies about the water quality of Euphrates River in Iraq till now have been reviewed critically. The revision of the published researches depend upon several bases including the period of samples collection, the number of sampling stations, water samples collection method, the analytical techniques employed to measure and analyze the results. This critical study concluded that the need to follow a specific protocol in selection sampling sites, how the samples are collected, how samples are analyzed, and pay attention to quality assurance and quality control during sample collection, preservation and analytical procedures.
Initial delineation of prospecting zones of groundwater was conducted in the present studyusing remote sensing and geographic information system (GIS) techniques. It has been preparingan integrated geographic database of spatial and non-spatial data for the study area. The spatialdata were generated by using image processing software (Erdas 8.3) and GIS software (Arc view3.3) enhanced by real frequent field visits of the study area. These data include: surface featureswhich give a direct and indirect indicators of the existence of groundwater and affect to thegroundwater movement such as hydrogeomorphological, drainage density, slope, landuse andsoil maps. The non spatial data were derived primarily from real views during field visits to thestudy area and from the existing writing or previous studies. All the data generated were saved inthe GIS databank for the purpose of digitization, computational and generate the best possibleoutput results to determine the extent of possible areas where the water that exists for the purposeof prospecting. Results showed that more areas could be have very good categories of prospectzones are the southern parts of the study area, which covers about 375 Km2 while the northernareas, which covers about 164 Km2 of the study area are grouped as runoff zone. Accordingly thepossibilities of the presence of groundwater are poor to negligible in this zone. The current studydemonstrated that a remote sensing and GIS technique are very effective tools that can give theinitial predictions on the presence or probability of the presence of ground water in areas whichhave the same considered geological deposits for the study area.