Assessment of Shatt al-Arab water quality using water indices in Basrah City of South Iraq

¹ Department of Remote sensing and GIS, College of Science, University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq
² Department of Geology College of Science, University of Baghdad, Baghdad, Iraq

^* Corresponding author: Ebtesam.khanjer@sc.uobaghdad.edu.iq

Abstract

This study aims to assess the state of pollution in Shatt al- Arab water by measuring the physical and chemical characteristics. The study was based on the link between field data and mathematical models derived from satellite images of Landsat and Geographic Information Systems in order to evaluate Shatt al-Arab water and to find digital maps that can be used to predict the quality of water along the river. The current study includes evaluating the water of the Shatt al-Arab, studying the concentrations of pollutants in it, and knowing the suitability of its water for different purposes. However, chemical and physical variables related to water quality were studied. These variables were compared with the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation limits. After the processing of the satellite images, NDWI, MNDWI, NDMI, WRI and AWEI were derived using the mathematical equations for calculating each indicator. The correlation between these derived indicators and the field-measured water quality parameters was calculated and regression equations were built in order to find the best mathematical models for expressing water quality components from satellite images without needing field data. The results show that there is moderate to strong relation between the water quality parameters and derived indices.