TITLE:
Evaluation of Dredging Operations for Tigris River within Baghdad, Iraq
AUTHORS:
Ammar Ali, Qusay Al-Suhail, Nadhir Al-Ansari, Sven Knutsson
KEYWORDS:
Baghdad; Dredging; Flooding Capacity; Tigris River
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Water Resource and Protection,
Vol.6 No.4,
March
20,
2014
ABSTRACT: River
Tigris divides Baghdad, capital of Iraq, in two parts. The reach of the river
within Baghdad is about 60 km long. Many islands and bars are obstructing the
flow of the river within Baghdad. To overcome this problem, dredging operations
started along most of Tigris River inside Baghdad City to remove many islands
and side bars, which reduced the flooding capacity and the efficiency of water
intakes. An examination for the dredging plan under process and two proposed
additional plans was performed using the Hydrologic Engineering Centers River
Analysis System software (HEC-RAS) for a 50 km long river reach to investigate
whether they can recover the designed flooding capacity of the river or just
improving it. Calibration and verification processes were implemented in the
model using observed water levels at Sarai Baghdad gauging station and along
the last 15 km of the river reach. Comparisons of computed water levels were
conducted with those of previous studies and historical data. Some improvement
of flood capacity was achieved based on the recorded data of the last three
decades. Cautions about the water intakes should be considered to maintain
their function with the expected drop in water level due to dredging operations.