Wind speed profile has a significant role in environmental transport phenomena whereby Roughness length is a governing factor that determines wind speed profile. Normally, relatively crude estimates of roughness length are used in global climate models based on constant values for each specific land cover category. However, a significant variation may exist within any one of these land cover categories. For this reason, it is necessary to derive detailed roughness length distribution over areas under consideration. Satellite observations can be used to assess the details of roughness length distribution. The aim of the present study was to develop method for roughness length assessment based on remotely sensed Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and landscape images for the entire Iraq area. The NDVI was generated using MODIS data (MOD13Q1) at 250 m resolution acquired on 23th April 2015 for whole Iraq. And the landscape images were classified based on land use and land cover (LU/LC) that relates general classes of LU/LC and values of roughness length coefficient. Taking into consideration a specific range of NDVI values of each landscape category, a correlation analysis was used to determine the aerodynamic roughness between the values of (NDVI) and the aerodynamic roughness based on the European Wind Atlas classification and the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute. A quantitative relationship was set up to retrieve the aerodynamic roughness length from MODIS data (MOD13Q1) where R2 = 0.96. Experiments prove that the proposed methodology can provide accurate roughness length estimations for the spatial and temporal analysis of land surface. The findings of this study will enhance sustainability in Iraq and many other regions of the world, thus, supporting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through the establishment of wind farms especially in countries with coastal areas that can serve as a major source of the national electricity.
This study shows the potential of using the satellite data techniques that are supported by the GIS and remote sensing (RS) approaches to produce the roughness map for the surface of Iraq and any area in a very efficient manner. Normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) was generated using MODIS data acquired on 23 April 2015. Thirty-six points were used to build and verify the proposed model of surface roughness coefficient (n), which was correlated with NDVI layer according to the types of soil cover and land use to create the predicted distributed roughness map. The results revealed that there has been a great match between the proposed surface roughness map produced in this study with the topographical map of Iraq. The results presented also that the minimum and maximum values of surface roughness n were located in the far south and far north of about 0.029 and o.16, respectively, whereas the concentrated value of n was scattered and ranged from 0.035 to 0.16 in north, central, and south parts of the study area. The statistical analysis resulted mean, R, and COV values of 1.02, 0989, and 15.553% consecutively, which exposed the good accuracy and consistency of the predicted roughness map. Verification was conducted which revealed a good accuracy and consistency of the predicted roughness map.
Water bodies in Iraq and other countries are considered the essential key for human life as they play a large and influential role in the country’s economy. Thus, the strategic plans of water management must be developed according to the need for future requirements. The current study aims to monitor the change in the water surface area of Haditha Dam Lake by calculating the surface area of the lake over a sequential time (1985-2019). GIS and Satellite imagery techniques were used to achieve the goal of the study. Landsat Space Archive was used with its fifth, seventh and eighth categories according to Path 170 / Row 36. The results showed that the lake generated from the dam was tested by three main stages. The first stage (1985-1988), the second stage (1988-2000) and third stage (2000-2019). The study presented that the average area of the Haditha dam Lak for the period 2001-2016 was 313 km2, compared to the average area of 418 km2 for the period 1988-2000, which means that the difference in the average surface area decreased by 25%. The Maximum and minimum water surface areas were about 427 km2 and 148 km2 for 2014 and 2015 respectively throughout the period time of 1988 to 2019. The declination behaviour of the surface area was observed from 1988 t0 2019 for the general trend line with a slope of 11.8.
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