Survey and characterization of water resources and soils around Wadi Rehana region in the western desert of Iraq

Abstract

The research was conducted in Wadi Rehana area within the Upper Euphrates region in the Iraqi Western Desert. A number of samples of groundwater wells were collected randomly on a seasonal basis and were chemically analysed to obtain concentrations of some important elements to determine the quality of water resources. The results showed that various wells with the water quality within the classes C5S1 and C6S1, are considered very salty and unsuitable for irrigation operations and rarely used for some types of crops. The results showed that all five soil pedon had SL and Sil textures, and they are within the medium texture soil of the surface layers. The EC values ranged from 11.5 dS m-1 to 0.94 dS m-1. The digital average of the acidity function in the soil ranged from 7.7 to 7. The CaCO3 values ranged between 23.3 and 64.8%, while CaSO4 between 0.4 and 47.9%. Furthermore, organic carbon was between 0.10 and 0.6%, SAR values ranged from 0.27 to 6.1, CEC across soil sections from 18.4 to 32.3%, and the total nitrogen ratio for the surface layer from 533 to 9207 ppm. Phosphorus ranged from 2.0 to 7.4 ppm, while potassium from 9.2 to 28.7 ppm.