Using GIS and Remote Sensing Techniques to Study Water Quality Changes and Spectral Analysis of Tigris River within Mosul City, North of Iraq

Abstract

     The aim of the study is the measuring of changes in the spectral reflectivity water quality, analyzing the seasonal difference of Tigris River within Mosul City in the north of Iraq using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and remote sensing techniques during the period (2014-2018). For this paper, Satellite images of the 8 Landsat in 2018 for four seasons have been selected in order to study the seasonal changes on the river they took place during 2018.  A total of ten sample datasets were taken at the upstream, midstream and downstream along the Tigris River. This research focuses on analyzing the locational variance of reflectance, analyzing seasonal difference, and finding modeling algal amount change. There are distinctive reflectance differences among the downstream, mid-stream and upstream areas. Red, green, blue and near-infrared reflectance values decreased significantly toward the upstream. Results also showed that reflectance values are significantly associated with the seasonal factor. In the case of long-term trends, reflectance values have slightly increased in the downstream, while decreased slightly in the mid-stream and upstream. The modeling of chlorophyll-a and Secchi disk depth implies that water clarity has decreased over time while chlorophyll-a amounts have decreased. The decreasing water clarity seems to be attributed to other reasons than chlorophyll-a.