Remote sensing of water quality index for irrigation usability of the Euphrates River

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to study the water quality indices and their classifications for irrigation use at many stations along the Euphrates River inside the Iraqi lands and to try to correlate the results with the satellite image analyses for the purpose of making a colored model for the Euphrates that can be used to predict the quality classifications of the river for irrigation use at any point along the river. The Bhargava method was used to calculate the water quality index for irrigation use at sixteen stations along the river from its entrance to the Iraqi land at Al-Qaim in Anbar governorate to its union with the Tigris River at Qurna in Basrah governorate. Coordinates of the sixteen stations of the Euphrates River were projected at the mosaic of Iraq satellite image which was taken from LANDSAT satellite for bands 1, 2 and 3. It was noticed that there was a strong negative correlation between the water quality index and the digital numbers at band 2 for the mosaic satellite image. A regression model was built between the water quality index at December, 2009 and the digital number at band 2 so as to build a colored model which was used to predict a water quality classification for irrigation use at any point along the river. © 201 WIT Press.