Ecosystems provide humans with services that include benefits from food, fresh water, climate regulation, and socio-economic assets. The Mesopotamian marshlands are among the largest wetlands in the Middle East and they provide various benefits. However, ecosystem services of the Marshlands are consistently undervalued in national economic analysis and decision making. This study focusses on the Central Marshes, the first National Park in Iraq, and is the first attempt at valuing a series of ecosystem services from a valuable natural ecosystem in Iraq. We adopted the Toolkit for Ecosystem Services Site-Based Assessment (TESSA) for the determination of biophysical and economic values of services at the site level. Data on key ecosystem se

Precise forecasting of pore pressures is crucial for efficiently planning and drilling oil and gas wells. It reduces expenses and saves time while preventing drilling complications. Since direct measurement of pore pressure in wellbores is costly and time-intensive, the ability to estimate it using empirical or machine learning models is beneficial. The present study aims to predict pore pressure using artificial neural network. The building and testing of artificial neural network are based on the data from five oil fields and several formations. The artificial neural network model is built using a measured dataset consisting of 77 data points of Pore pressure obtained from the modular formation dynamics tester. The input variables

Hydrodynamics is the interpretation of subsurface fluids and pressures to explain and predict hydrocarbon occurrence and trapping. Different models of fluid flow and hydrocarbon entrapments were constructed for the Mishrif Formation in (Rumaila South RU, Rumaila North R, West Qurna WQ, Majnon MJ, and ZubairZB) oilfields in Basra, southern Iraq. The dynamic flow within the oil reservoir was analyzed by measuring the specific gravity, hydrostatic pressure, hydrodynamic pressure, pressure gradient, salinity and hydraulic head. Fluid saturation in the pore space, hydrodynamic parameters, density, permeability and buoyancy influence fluid flow. The hydrodynamic model indicates that the oil fields are non-isolated reservoirs with a unifor

Petrophysical properties evaluation from well log analysis has always been crucial for the identification and assessment of hydrocarbon bearing zones. East Baghdad field is located 10 km east of Baghdad city, where the southern area includes the two southern portions of the field, Khasib formation is the main reservoir of East Baghdad oil field.

In this paper, well log data of nine wells have been environmentally corrected, where the corrected data used to determine lithology, shale volume, porosity, and water saturation. Lithology identified by two methods; neutron-density and M-N matrix plots, while the shale volume estimated by single shale indicator and dual shale indicator, The porosity is calculated from the three common po

The fish assemblage in the East Hammar marsh was studied during December 2009 to May 2010. The fish fauna of the marsh consisted of 17 native, 23 marine (49%) and seven alien species. The dominant species were Liza abu (14.6%), Carassius auratus (13.4%) and Thryssa mystax (11.2%). The resident species formed 44.7%, occasional species 36.1% and seasonal species 19.2% of the total number of fish species. Fish species diversity index ranged from 1.28 to 2.61, richness from 1.98 to 4.50 and evenness from 0.45 to 0.78. Salinity ranged from 1.45 to 7.74‰. The increase in the proportion of marine species (49%) in the fish assemblage due to marine waters progress from Arabian Gulf had an impact on the values of ecological indices and the

Water pollution is an issue that can be exacerbated by drought as increased concentrations of unwanted substances are a consequence of lower water levels. Polluted water that flows into natural marshlands leads to the deposition of pollutants in the interior of the marsh. Here we present evidence that the interior of the Central Marsh (CM) in southern Iraq suffers from higher levels of pollution than areas closer to the source of water entering the marsh (the Euphrates River). A 1.7m embankment that halts the flow of the Euphrates is only infrequently breached and so the CM is effectively the terminal destination of the waters (and their associated pollutants and agricultural waste) flowing from the West of Iraq.

A range of water

Galvanic corrosion of stainless steel 316 (SS316) and carbon steel (CS) coupled in 5% wt/v sulfuric acid solution at agitation velocity was investigated. The galvanic behavior of coupled metals was also studied using zero resistance ammeter (ZRA) method. The effects of agitation velocity, temperature, and time on galvanic corrosion current and loss in weight of both metals in both free corrosion and galvanic corrosion were investigated. The trends of open circuit potential (OCP) of each metal and galvanic potential (E_g) of the couple were, also, determined. Results showed that SS316 was cathodic relative to CS in galvanic couple and its OCP was much more positive than that of CS for all investigated ranges of