Validity of Existing Rain Water Harvesting Dams within Part of Western Desert, Iraq

The study area is located within the western part of Iraq between Latitude (32˚45'0'' - 34˚0'0'') North and longitude (39˚30'0'' - 40˚45'0'') East within Anbar Governorate. It covers an area of 4767.423 Km 2 with elevation ranges from 360 to 840 m. The general slope decreases from southwest to northeast. Five old dams identified in the study area. The results of SWAT model showed high curve number (70 - 85) indicating low filtration and runoff rate (1.2 - 8.2) mm for the period (1994-2014). These dams have catchment areas ranged between (118.03 - 673.41) km 2. They were to be used for agricultural purposes. The results according to the Food, Agriculture Organization (FAO) standards for their distance from agricultural areas using a GIS showed that all are not suitable except dam number (1). The distance to roads showed that dams (1, 4) are highly suitable, (2, 3) are low suitable and dam (5) is not suitable. The average annual quantity of rain water that can be harvested from the 5 dams is about 12.9 million cubic meters.Validerad;2019;Nivå 1;2019-12-06 (johcin)