Note: Intro -- Preface -- Contents -- Introduction -- 1 Introduction to "Environmental Remote Sensing and GIS in Iraq" -- 1.1 Iraq: A Brief Background -- 1.2 Soil Characterization, Modelling, and Mapping -- 1.3 Proximal Soil Sensing -- 1.4 RS and GIS for Land Cover/Land Use Change Monitoring -- 1.5 Land Degradation, Drought, and Dust Storms -- 1.6 Remote Sensing and GIS for Natural Resources -- References -- Soil Characterization, Modelling, and Mapping -- 2 Using Radar and Optical Data for Soil Salinity Modeling and Mapping in Central Iraq -- 2.1 Introduction -- 2.2 Methods and Materials -- 2.2.1 Study Area -- 2.2.2 Data -- 2.2.3 Approaches and Procedures -- 2.3 Results and Discussion -- 2.3.1 Correlation -- 2.3.2 Soil Salinity Models and Maps -- 2.3.3 Assessment of the Developed Approaches -- 2.4 Conclusions -- 2.5 Recommendations -- References -- 3 Using Remote Sensing to Predict Soil Properties in Iraq -- 3.1 Introduction -- 3.2 Case Studies -- 3.2.1 Prediction of Soil Organic Carbon and Nitrogen Forms -- 3.2.2 Prediction of Soil Salinity -- 3.2.3 Physical Properties -- 3.2.4 Prediction of Some Soil Water Properties -- 3.3 Conclusions -- References -- 4 Characterization and Classification of Soil Map Units by Using Remote Sensing and GIS in Bahar Al-Najaf, Iraq -- 4.1 Introduction -- 4.2 Geology of the Study Area -- 4.2.1 Geomorphological and Hydrological Phenomena of the Study Area -- 4.2.2 Classification of Iraqi Alluvial Soils -- 4.2.3 Remote Sensing -- 4.2.4 Accuracy Assessment of Digital Image Classification -- 4.2.5 Applications of RS in the Field of Iraqi Environment and Soils -- 4.2.6 Soil Surveying and Classification Studies of Bahar Al-Najaf Region -- 4.3 Methodology -- 4.3.1 The Geographical Location of Bahar Al-Najaf Region -- 4.3.2 FieldWork -- 4.3.3 Office Work -- 4.3.4 Accuracy Assessment for Digitalmap Classification. , 4.3.5 Preparation of GIS Database -- 4.4 Results and Discussion -- 4.4.1 Classification and Distribution of Soil Units in the Study Area -- 4.4.2 Digital Image Classification Using Remote Sensing Techniques -- 4.4.3 Accuracy Assessment of Digital Classification -- 4.5 Conclusions -- 4.6 Recommendations -- References -- Proximal Soil Sensing -- 5 Proximal Soil Sensing for Soil Monitoring -- 5.1 Introduction -- 5.1.1 Proximal Soil Sensing (PSS) -- 5.1.2 Soil Spectroscopy -- 5.1.3 Acquiring Reflectance Information from Soil -- 5.2 Background of Soil Spectroscopy -- 5.2.1 Soil Spectroscopy for Soil Properties Monitoring -- 5.2.2 Soil Spectroscopy for Soil Contamination Monitoring -- 5.3 Spectroscopic Preprocessing and Calibration -- 5.3.1 Preprocessing -- 5.3.2 Calibration -- 5.4 Accuracy and Uncertainty in Soil Spectroscopy -- 5.5 Soil Spectroscopy for Iron Oxide Prediction: A Case Study in Sulaimani, the Iraqi Kurdistan Region -- 5.5.1 Materials and Methods -- 5.5.2 Results -- 5.6 Conclusions -- 5.7 Recommendations and Future Aspects -- References -- 6 Proximal Soil Sensing Applications in Soil Fertility -- 6.1 Introduction -- 6.2 Background: Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Historical Review -- 6.2.1 The Potential of Vis-NIR Spectroscopy and Its Applications to Soil Analysis -- 6.3 Materials and Methods -- 6.3.1 Study Site Description and Soil Sampling -- 6.3.2 Soil Spectra Measurements -- 6.3.3 Data Analysis: Calibration -- 6.3.4 Evaluation of the Prediction Power -- 6.4 Results and Discussion -- 6.4.1 Vis-NIR Spectra of Soils -- 6.4.2 Nutrients Prediction by PLS Analysis -- 6.4.3 Nutrients Prediction by GIS-Kriging -- 6.5 Conclusions -- 6.6 Recommendations -- References -- RS and GIS for Land Cover/Land Use Change Monitoring -- 7 Multi-temporal Satellite Data for Land Use/Cover (LULC) Change Detection in Zakho, Kurdistan Region-Iraq -- 7.1 Introduction. , 7.2 Materials and Methods -- 7.2.1 Study Area -- 7.2.2 Data and Pre-processing -- 7.2.3 LULC Classification -- 7.2.4 LULC Mapping: Post Classification Change Detection -- 7.2.5 Accuracy and Area Assessment -- 7.3 Results and Discussion -- 7.3.1 LULC Analysis -- 7.3.2 LULC Patterns Change in the Study Area Between 1989 and 2017 -- 7.3.3 LULC Conversions for the Last 28 Years (1989-2017) -- 7.4 Conclusion -- 7.5 Recommendations -- References -- 8 Monitoring of the Land Cover Changes in Iraq -- 8.1 Introduction -- 8.2 Climate Changes in the World -- 8.3 Rainfall and Temperature -- 8.4 eMODIS NDVI V6 -- 8.5 Land Cover -- 8.6 Vegetation Distribution in Iraq -- 8.7 Vegetation Change Detection in Iraq -- 8.8 Relationship Between Vegetation Distribution, Precipitation and Elevation -- 8.9 Conclusion -- 8.10 Recommendation -- References -- 9 Effects of Land Cover Change on Surface Runoff Using GIS and Remote Sensing: A Case Study Duhok Sub-basin -- 9.1 Introduction -- 9.1.1 Land Cover and Land Use -- 9.1.2 Soil Conservation Service Curve Number (SCS-CN) Method -- 9.2 Methodology and Data -- 9.2.1 Study Area -- 9.2.2 Climate Conditions -- 9.2.3 Satellite and Rainfall Data -- 9.2.4 Images Classification -- 9.2.5 SCS-CN Model and the Proposed Method -- 9.2.6 Estimate Runoff Depth -- 9.3 Results and Discussion -- 9.3.1 Changes in Land Cover -- 9.3.2 Rainfall Variable in Time -- 9.3.3 Changes in Potential Runoff -- 9.4 Conclusions -- 9.5 Recommendations -- References -- Land Degradation, Drought, and Dust Storms -- 10 Monitoring and Mapping of Land Threats in Iraq Using Remote Sensing -- 10.1 Introduction -- 10.2 Soil Salinity -- 10.2.1 Monitoring and Mapping Soil Salinity -- 10.2.2 Dynamic Salinity Changes -- 10.2.3 Methodology for Monitoring and Mapping Soil Salinity -- 10.2.4 Salinity Changes in Mesopotamia. , 10.2.5 Effect of Soil Salinity on Vegetation Changes in Mesopotamia Plain -- 10.3 Land Cover/Land Use -- 10.3.1 Land Cover/Land Use Dynamic Changes -- 10.3.2 Methodology for Monitoring and Mapping LULC Changes in Iraq -- 10.4 Sand Dunes -- 10.4.1 Dynamic Changes for Sand Dunes Areas During 2006-2016 -- 10.5 Monitoring the Expansion of Urban Land -- 10.5.1 Impacts of Urbanization -- 10.5.2 Causes of Urbanization -- 10.6 Conclusions -- 10.7 Recommendations -- References -- 11 Agricultural Drought Monitoring Over Iraq Utilizing MODIS Products -- 11.1 Introduction -- 11.2 Materials and Methods -- 11.2.1 Selection of the Study Area -- 11.2.2 Data Collection and Processing -- 11.3 Results and Discussion -- 11.4 Conclusions -- References -- 12 The Aeolian Sand Dunes in Iraq: A New Insight -- 12.1 Introduction -- 12.2 Type of Aeolian Sand Dunes and Their Distribution in the World -- 12.3 Climate and Aeolian Sand Dunes in Iraq -- 12.4 Landsat, Sentinel-SAR Data -- 12.5 Aeolian Sand Dunes Distribution in Iraq -- 12.6 Aeolian Sand Dunes Monitoring in Iraq -- 12.7 Sand Dunes Movement in the Center of Mesopotamia -- 12.7.1 Preparing SAR Data for DInSAR -- 12.7.2 Results and Discussion of DInSAR -- 12.8 Conclusion -- 12.9 Recommendations -- References -- 13 Drought Monitoring for Northern Part of Iraq Using Temporal NDVI and Rainfall Indices -- 13.1 Introduction -- 13.2 Background -- 13.2.1 Drought as a Concept and Definition -- 13.2.2 Impact of Drought on Soil Properties -- 13.2.3 Drought Monitoring -- 13.2.4 Remote Sensing and GIS: Their Relation to Drought Issues -- 13.2.5 Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) -- 13.2.6 Drought Mitigation: Options and Implementation -- 13.3 Materials and Methods -- 13.3.1 Study Area -- 13.3.2 Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) -- 13.3.3 Pre-processing of Satellite Images -- 13.3.4 NDVI Calculations. , 13.3.5 Software Used -- 13.4 Result and Discussion -- 13.4.1 Drought Classification Based on Meteorological Data -- 13.4.2 Drought Classification Based on Remote Sensing Data -- 13.4.3 NDVI-Rainfall Relationship -- 13.4.4 Agricultural Drought Risk Based on NDVI Anomaly -- 13.5 Conclusions -- 13.6 Recommendations -- References -- 14 Remote Sensing and GIS for Dust Storm Studies in Iraq -- 14.1 Introduction -- 14.2 Remote Sensing for Dust Storm Studies -- 14.2.1 Dust Sources Identification -- 14.2.2 Dust Detection Using Satellite Imagery -- 14.2.3 Atmospheric Patterns of Dust Storms -- 14.2.4 Climate Regimes of Dust Storms -- 14.2.5 Dust Storm Tracking Model -- 14.2.6 Dust Emission (Soil Erosion) Assessment using Remote Sensing -- 14.2.7 Land Use/Land Cover Mapping Using Remote Sensing -- 14.2.8 Morphological Unite Maps -- 14.2.9 Drought and Dust Storms Studies using Remote Sensing -- 14.2.10 Remote Sensing Change Detection -- 14.3 GIS for Dust Storm Studies -- 14.3.1 Dust Sources Modeling with GIS -- 14.3.2 Knowledge-Based Approaches -- 14.3.3 GIS for Modeling the Effect of Dust Storms on Health -- 14.4 Summary -- References -- 15 Drought Monitoring Using Spectral and Meteorological Based Indices Combination: A Case Study in Sulaimaniyah, Kurdistan Region of Iraq -- 15.1 Introduction -- 15.2 The Study Area -- 15.3 Materials and Methods -- 15.3.1 Soil Samples Preparations -- 15.3.2 Remotely Sensed Datasets -- 15.3.3 Preprocessing of the Landsat Images -- 15.3.4 Drought Indices -- 15.3.5 SPI -- 15.3.6 Remote Sensing Based Drought Indices -- 15.3.7 NDVI -- 15.3.8 LST -- 15.3.9 NDWI -- 15.4 Results and Discussions -- 15.4.1 NDVI -- 15.4.2 NDWI -- 15.4.3 LST -- 15.4.4 SPI -- 15.4.5 The Combined NDVI-SPI Drought Maps -- 15.4.6 The Statistical Analysis -- 15.5 Conclusions -- References -- RS and GIS for Natural Resources. , 16 Geo-Morphometric Analysis and Flood Simulation of the Tigris River Due to a Predicted Failure of the Mosul Dam, Mosul, Iraq.