Modelling Approaches to Understand Salinity Variations in a Highly Dynamic Tidal River: The Case of the Shatt al-Arab River

This book reports the first systematic monitoring and modelling study on water availability, water quality and seawater intrusion of the Shatt al-Arab River (SAR) on the border of Iraq and Iran, where causes and concentration levels of salinity have not yet been fully understood, let alone addressed, leading to conflicting perceptions of its origin (external or internal), the natural conditions and the practices that can explain the current critical conditions. Current scientific knowledge on the SAR salinity problem is deficient, partially due to the complex and dynamic interaction between marine and terrestrial salinity sources, including return flows by water users of the different water sectors in the Euphrates and Tigris rivers upstream of the SAR.

The development of a new series of monitoring stations and various modelling approaches helped to better understand the interactions between these different sources. The comprehensive and detailed dataset formed the basis for a validated analytical model that can predict the extent of seawater relative to other salinity sources in an estuary, and for a hydrodynamic model that can predict salinity changes. The adaptability of the models to changing conditions makes them directly applicable by water managers. The procedure can be applied to other comparable systems.

Ali Dinar Abdullah obtained his BSc degree in Civil Engineering from Basra University, in Basra. Ali joined the Ministry of Water Resources of Iraq in 2001. He was involved in design, implementation and rehabilitation of mainly land reclamation, irrigation and drainage projects. He completed his MSc degree in Water Resources Management in 2007 at UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, Delft, the Netherlands. His master research was on the design of operating rules for complex reservoir systems, applying artificial neural networks. In 2008 he became head of maintenance of water resource projects department in the ministry of Water Resources in Iraq, and worked primarily on the maintenance of flood protection works, water control and distribution structures, irrigation and drainage networks and main waterways. In 2012 Ali started his research on water availability and salinity changes for improved water resources management in the Shatt al-Arab River.