Evaluation of Dredging Operations for Tigris River within Baghdad, Iraq

Ammar Ali, Qusay Al-Suhail, Nadhir Al-Ansari, Sven Knutsson

1Department of Civil, Environmental and Natural Resources Engineering, Lulea University of Technology, Lulea, Sweden 2College of Engineering, Baghdad University, Baghdad, Iraq.
College of Science, Baghdad University, Baghdad, Iraq.
Department of Civil, Environmental and Natural Resources Engineering, Lulea University of Technology, Lulea, Sweden.

DOI: 10.4236/jwarp.2014.64026                

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.

Keywords

Baghdad; Dredging; Flooding Capacity; Tigris River

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

References

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