Calculating the Water Deficit and Surplus in the Levels of the Euphrates River using the Equations of Ivanov and Najib Kharrufa

Abstract

The science of hydrology focuses on the earth's waters, including their occurrence, circulation, and distribution, as well as their physical and chemical characteristics and interactions with the surrounding biological and physical environments, including how they react to human activity.  Climate, with its various elements, is one of the natural factors affecting the water resources of the river’s flow, albeit in varying proportions and according to the response of these aspects to each element of the climate. Climate is one of the natural factors that directly or indirectly affect the formation of the hydrological characteristics of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. The data used for the study area included rainfall, evaporation rate, relative humidity, wind speed, length of sunshine hours, Temperature, and water discharge. Data were obtained from NASA, the US National Administration, the Ministry of Water Resources, and the General Authority of Meteorology and Seismic Monitoring for the period (2013-2023). The study area included three stations through which the Euphrates River passes, considered one of Iraq's main rivers. The results obtained through the equations of Ivanov and Najib Kharoufa indicated that there is a water deficit in the Euphrates River caused by a decrease in the amounts of rainfall and an increase in the quantities of evaporation as it moves towards the south, which led to a reduction in the revenues of the Euphrates River through the volume of water losses that occurred as a result of the increase in Temperatures, wind speed and direction, water surface capacity, and length of daylight hours Finally, the flow of the river slowed in the southern part, where the above stations are located, due to the low slope of the surface. Other factors that have the greatest impact on losing the largest possible amount of water are included in the water losses occurring in the river’s revenues, as it was found that a water deficit occurred in the Hilla, Samawah, and Nasiriyah stations during January as an average for the period 10 years and according to the equation Ivanov and respectively -150.5 mm, -166.8 mm and -120.4 mm. The percentage of water deficit, according to the sheep equation for the above stations and for January and the same period, was estimated at -48.5 mm, -46.3 mm, and -41.1 mm, respectively.