Covid-19 was first reported in Iraq on February 24, 2020. Since then, to prevent its propagation, the Iraqi government declared a state of health emergency. A set of rapid and strict countermeasures have taken, including locking down cities and limiting population's mobility. In this study, concentrations of four criteria pollutants, NO 2 , O 3 , PM 2.5 and PM 10 before the lockdown from January 16 to February 29, 2020, and during four periods of partial and total lockdown from March 1 to July 24, 2020, in Baghdad were analysed. Overall, 6, 8 and 15% decreases in NO 2 , PM 2.5 , and PM 10 concentrations, respectively in Baghdad during the 1st partial and total lockdown from March 1 to April 21, compared to the period before the lockdown. While, there were 13% increase in O 3 for same period. During the 2nd partial lockdown from June 14 to July 24, NO 2 and PM 2.5 decreases 20 and 2.5%, respectively. While, there were 525 and 56% increase in O 3 and PM 10 , respectively for same period. The air quality index (AQI) improved by 13% in Baghdad during the 1st partial lockdown from March 1 to April 21, compared to its pre-lockdown. The results of NO 2 tropospheric column extracted from the Sentinel-5P satellite shown the NO 2 emissions reduced up to 35 to 40% across Iraq, due to lockdown measures, between January and July, 2020, especially across the major cities such as Baghdad, Basra and Erbil. The lockdown due to COVID-19 has drastic effects on social and economic aspects. However, the lockdown also has some positive effect on natural environment and air quality improvement.

Most of the third world countries having rivers passing through them suffer from the water contaminant problem. This problem is considered so difficult to get the water quality within the standard allowable limits for drinking, as well as for industrial and agricultural purposes. This research aims to assess the water quality of the Tigris River using the water quality index method and GIS software. Twelve parameters (Ca, Mg, Na, K, Cl, SO4, HCO3, TH, TDS, BOD5, NO3, and EC) were taken from 14 stations along the river. The weighted arithmetic method was applied to compute the water quality index (WQI). The interpolation method (IDW) was applied in ArcGIS 10.5 to produce the prediction maps for 12 parameters at 11 stations along the Tigris River during the wet and dry seasons in 2016. The regression prediction was applied on three stations in the Tigris River between observed values and predicted values, from the prediction maps, in both seasons. The results showed that the regression prediction for all parameters was given the acceptable values of the determination coefficient (R2). Furthermore, the state of water quality for the Tigris River was degraded downstream of the Tigris River, especially at the station (8) in Aziziyah in the wet and dry seasons and increase degradation clearly at Qurnah (Basrah province) in the south of Iraq. This paper considers the whole length of the Tigris River for the study. This is important to give comprehensive knowledge about the contamination reality of the river. Such that it becomes easier to understand the problem of contamination, analyze it, and then find the suitable treatments and solutions.

A crisis of water scarcity in the world encouraged researchers, especially in the arid areas to know the nature and quality of all its sources regardless of surface water. The groundwater evaluation for irrigation was suggested by using the model of Water Quality Index for Irrigation (WQIIR) in the ArcMap/GIS Software. This model was applied to 48 wells distributed throughout the Hilla district, Babylon, Iraq. The samples of EC, Ca+2, Mg+2, Cl−1, Na+1, HCO3−1, and SAR for groundwater were collected from these wells during wet and dry seasons in 2016. The generated maps in GIS for the WQIIR model in both seasons were divided into categories based on restriction’s groundwater use for irrigation. These categories consisted of Severe Restriction (SR), High Restriction (HR), Moderate Restriction (MR), Low Restriction, and No Restriction. The areas values and their classification of restriction’s groundwater use for irrigation related to the five categories that resulted within the generated maps in GIS using the WQIIR model in the wet season (in km2) were: 42.79 (SR), 407.05 (HR), 377.77 (MR), 32.39 (LR) and 0.23 (NR) respectively and for the dry season were as follows: 42.79 (SR), 407.05 (HR), 377.77 (MR), 32.39 (LR) and 0.23 (NR) respectively. The areas and the classification categories of restriction groundwater for irrigation calculated based on the values resulted from the WQIIR model have shown variation in the dry and wet seasons.

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The infill walls may lose their positive effects during the first stages of earthquakes, either by leaving their plane or through breakage. That is why it is common to strengthen these walls before design earthquakes or to repair and strengthen them after suffering slight or moderate damage due to the occurrence of an earthquake. In this study, the effect of adding and strengthening these walls on the structural behavior of reinforced concrete structures was investigated. For this purpose, the infill walls were strengthened with a single mesh of reinforcement and covered with plaster. Five one-story, single bay and ½ scaled reinforced concrete frames were cast, one was built without infill, the second with a bare infill wall, and the other three with strengthened infill walls with anchorage of different diameters. All these specimens were tested under cyclic loading type reverse. The tests resulted in important relationships and curves, including the lateral load-lateral displacement, envelope curve-lateral load and lateral displacement, as well as stiffness- lateral displacement and others. Through these results, the effect of adding infill walls and the strengthening procedure of these walls on the structural behavior of the structures was discussed.