The Investigation of the relation between agricultural land consumption and groundwater decline: A study of Duhok Governorate, Iraq

IF 4.7 2区环境科学与生态学 Q2 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES Environmental Development Pub Date : 2025-02-13 DOI:10.1016/j.envdev.2025.101170

Brjin Safar Mohammed , Dietwald Gruehn , Sabine Baumgart

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Agricultural land consumption caused by expropriation for infrastructure and development projects is an ongoing process in developing countries attributed to population growth and economic considerations. Rapid urban development in cities like Duhok in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region IKR has converted fertile lands into metropolitan areas in the past three decades. This development has resulted in numerous environmental impacts, particularly the decline in groundwater levels. This study investigates the relationship between this phenomenon and groundwater depletion in Semel and Zakho districts within Duhok governorate. The analysis spans from 1992 to 2023 for land consumption data and from 2004 to 2022 for groundwater decline data. The study utilized document analysis, field observation, and analysis of plans and drawings, using Geographic Information Systems GIS and Google Earth imagery, to examine the process's impact within the specific context. The findings reveal a significant increase in non-agricultural areas and a decline in agriculture over the studied period, demonstrating the sharp reduction in groundwater levels due to agricultural land consumption through expropriation.

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来源期刊

Environmental Development Social Sciences-Geography, Planning and Development

CiteScore

8.40

自引率

1.90%

发文量

审稿时长

74 days

期刊介绍： Environmental Development provides a future oriented, pro-active, authoritative source of information and learning for researchers, postgraduate students, policymakers, and managers, and bridges the gap between fundamental research and the application in management and policy practices. It stimulates the exchange and coupling of traditional scientific knowledge on the environment, with the experiential knowledge among decision makers and other stakeholders and also connects natural sciences and social and behavioral sciences. Environmental Development includes and promotes scientific work from the non-western world, and also strengthens the collaboration between the developed and developing world. Further it links environmental research to broader issues of economic and social-cultural developments, and is intended to shorten the delays between research and publication, while ensuring thorough peer review. Environmental Development also creates a forum for transnational communication, discussion and global action. Environmental Development is open to a broad range of disciplines and authors. The journal welcomes, in particular, contributions from a younger generation of researchers, and papers expanding the frontiers of environmental sciences, pointing at new directions and innovative answers. All submissions to Environmental Development are reviewed using the general criteria of quality, originality, precision, importance of topic and insights, clarity of exposition, which are in keeping with the journal''s aims and scope.