Submerged Surface Area and Water Storage Volume of Hamrin Dam Lake Using Contour Lines

Abstract

     The predictions and warnings from drying up lakes and rivers are increasing nowadays, especially in Iraq, due to climatic changes and water flow reduction from neighboring countries. Consequently, this paper deals with monitoring the changes in submerged surface areas and Hamrin dam lake storage volume from December 2011 to the end of 2022. Hamrin Lake supplies Diyala province, Iraq, with irrigation water. Multitemporal satellite images were acquired from google earth pro and Earth Observation (EO) browsers. Triangular Irregular Network (TIN) layers generated contour lines through the ArcGIS environment. Volumes were calculated using the end area method. The results show that the water storage volume reached 1.8 billion cubic meters (bcm) in December 2016 and decreased to 12 million cubic meters in December 2021. Hamrin Lake lost 99% and 98% of its capacity relative to the normal water storage volume in 2021 and 2022, respectively. At normal storage, the maximum water volume of Hamrin Lake is about 3 bcm. The scarcity of irrigation water from Hamrin Lake causes decreasing agricultural areas, desertification, and people migrating to other regions.