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An-Najaf province is situated in southwestern part of Iraq. It is 70 meters above the sea level in the dry desert environment. The city is considered as one of the most important cities in Iraq, facing a fast population growth and continuous development in constructions such as residential complexes, hotels, bridges and shopping malls. Soil investigation data for An-Najaf Province (An-Najaf and Kufa cities) from 464 boreholes drilled by the National Centre for Construction Laboratories & Researches (NCCLR)/Babylon laboratory were used in this research. The data were analysed and possessed using Excel program then represented on the Geographical Information System (GIS) program by Inverse Distance Weighted (IDW) tool to create an allowable bearing capacity map for the soil at depths 0-2 meters. The allowable bearing capacity is one of the most important soil characteristics to be considered when making a database for An-Najaf city soil. Geographical Information System GIS program enables to create reliable database for any characteristic and it is one of the best programs to produce an accurate map and allow ease in dealing with it. Those maps cover all the studied areas and by using contour lines, approximate values for no-data areas can be obtained. The results show that the allowable bearing capacity range is 5-20 Ton/m 2 for both An-Najaf and Kufa cities. Kufa city has the range 5-9 Ton/m 2. An-Najaf city has the range 7-18 at the center, 8-10 Ton/m 2 at the north eastern part, 7-14 Ton/m 2 for the north western part, 6-12 Ton/m 2 at the south eastern and 12-19 Ton/m 2 at the south western.

The main objective of the paper is to create geotechnical maps for three soil chemical properties in An-Najaf and Kufa cities' soil by utilizing of GIS tools. This properties are the chloride concentration, calcium carbonate (CaCO 3) and total soluble salts where they affect the durability of reinforced structural elements. This paper provides an easy accurate way to represent soil properties levels for different depths of soil and create reliable database that will help engineers and decision makers. The data included in this paper were collected for (464) boreholes with depths up to 35 m distributed on residential areas in all of An-Najaf and Kufa cities. Arc-Map of GIS 10.2.1 was used to produce the maps. It has been concluded that chloride content in the soil of the study area range from-0.01 to 0.99% and with an average of 0.5. The maximum value found in at depth 4-6 m while the minimum value found in location at depth 4-6, 8-10 and 14-16 m. The chloride content in most of An-Najaf province has exceeded the permissible limit and

AN-Najaf city is located 61 meters above the sea level in the dry desert of Iraq. It is one of the most important cities in Iraq due to religious tourism and continuously developing urban areas by constructing multi-storey buildings, bridges and shopping malls. This study aims to create a mapping database for sulfate in An-Najaf soil (Najaf centred and Al-Kufa cities' soil). To evaluate the spatial variability of data, 464 boreholes and in situ tests were selected and analysed using Geographic Information System ArcGIS 10.2.1. The adopted method consisted of four steps: (1) data collection; (2) geotechnical data georeferencing; (3) interpolation methods and (4) establishment of maps. Nine maps were produced for depths 0-35 m for sulfate content in soil. In addition to two maps for sulfate content in groundwater and organic matter content for depths 0-2. Results showed that all the study area and for depths 0-2 meter has very high sulfate content in the soil. Sulfate values varies between 0.36%-14% where all the results were higher than the permissible limit which is 0.2%. The sulfate content decreases with the depth yet still effective in some areas. Therefore, precautions have to be adopt to avoid risks. One of the precautions is to use sulfate resistance Portland cement (SRPC) for all concrete works that have contact with soil. Groundwater sulfate content in the study area was ranging between 84-239 %. These values were ineffective because they are lower than the permissible limit, which is 1460%. The organic matter content values vary between 0.05-2.34, the greatest part of the study area was lower than the permissible limit 1% and therefore ineffective. The PH values indicate that all the study area was alkaline so it is uninfluential.

This study intends to evaluate university students' awareness regarding water pollution in Iraq to show the environmental education contribution in reducing water pollution. The study was conducted in Wasit university, Wasit province, Iraq by field questionnaire survey with 388 students from the civil engineering department and engineering college. The questionnaires were divided according to the pollution causes into industrial, agricultural and sewage water pollutants. The data were analyzed utilizing the thematic analysis to assess environmental knowledge and awareness of water pollution risks. The results show that most students have high interest in environmental conservation, yet, a lack of education in general environmental education, as the educational curriculum focuses on theoretical aspects more than the practical ones. The results also show that the media role is inactive concerning environmental awareness of water pollution. This study provides a scientific view of policymakers for potential future conditions to find solutions that achieve sustainability goals.

The unified soil classification system (USCS) first proposed by Casagrande and subsequently developed by the Army Corps of Engineers. It widely used in many building codes and books. An-Najaf city is the most important city in Iraq due to its religious and spiritual value in the Muslim world, so it is fast expanding and continuous developing city in Iraq. The data from 464 boreholes in the study area for depths of 0-26 m have been used. 13 Soil samples were collected from each borehole with 13 depths level (0-26) m with 2 m intervals. The USCS was applied to the soil samples from 13 depth levels borehole. This research aims to create a geodatabase for soil properties for An-Najaf. The ArcGIS 10.5 software was used to interpolate the spatial data to produce 33 geotechnical maps for fine soil, coarse soil and USCS for 13 depth levels. For numerical soil data, Ordinary Kriging has been used for interpolation mapping of Fine and Coarse percentage data for each depth. For non-numerical (nominal) soil data (USCS class), the Indicator Kriging method is used. The results show that the coarse soil occupied 85-95% for depth 0-16 m and consist of (SP, SP-SM, SM) while fine soil occupied 5-15% consisting of (OL, CH, ML) subsequently, this soil when compacted has a permeability of pervious to semi impervious, good shearing strength, low to very low compressibility and acceptable workability as a construction material. The results also show that after 16 m depths until 26 m, the fine soil percentage increased to 40% with a coarse soil ().,-volV) ( 01234567 89().,-volV) percentage of 60%, indicating changes in soil characteristics as the permeability became semi-pervious to impervious, fair shearing strength, medium compressibility and fair workability as a construction material. The study results will provide help and saving time, efforts and money in preliminary engineering designs.

This study aims to analyze the spatial distribution of the epidemic spread and the role of the physical, social, and economic characteristics in this spreading. A geographically weighted regression (GWR) model was built within a GIS environment using infection data monitored by the Iraqi Ministry of Health records for 10 months from March to December 2020. The factors adopted in this model are the size of urban interaction areas and human gatherings, movement level and accessibility, and the volume of public services and facilities that attract people. The results show that it would be possible to deal with each administrative unit in proportion to its circumstances in light of the factors that appear in it. So, there will not be a single treatment for all areas with different urban characteristics, which sometimes helps not to stop social and economic life due to the imposition of a comprehensive ban on movement and activities. Therefore, there will be other supportive policies other than the ban, depending on the urban indicators for each region, such as reducing external movement from it or relying on preventing public activities only.