Polycarbonate plastics containing bisphenol A (BPA) used to manufacture drinking water bottles. Kurdistan region in northern Iraq is a developed area with increased pollution from plastic bottles. Trace amounts of BPA have been detected in bottled water samples. The absorption of BPA was measured with HPLC using a vertical cultivation system with Bulbs of the Allium Cepa plant planted in these plastic bottles with monitored growth. Vertical cultivation was found to have a low level of BPA in the plant cells, making it a safe cultivation method under specific climate conditions. The mean concentration of BPA in vertical cultivation is 0.19 ug/ml (3.8 ng for a 20 uL injection), and the Limit of Quantification (LOQ) is 0.63 ug/ml (12.7 ng for 20 uL injection). While Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) shows that the concentrations are relatively low in water samples stored at room temperature compared to those exposed to direct sunlight (40°C) and water bottle samples stored at (-4°C), The correlation coefficients were found to be good (0.9992). SEM is used for plastic bottle samples stored at different temperatures. The images identify compound decay and explore the morphology of BPA in manufactured plastic materials.

Using a safe and easy-to-apply economicfocculant to replace alum is necessary to expandand enhance the water quality in rural regions wheretraditional water treatment is unavailable. The seedof Moringa oleifera is locally available in large volumes and is feasibly economical. A compatibility andapplicability research of the easily accessible localMoringa oleifera seed extract (MOSE) was conductedto examine its potential utilization to lessen variousdegrees of water turbidity at 30±2 °C. The studyconcerns the optimum dosage of MOSE to give highturbidity removal efciency in the water. Experimentswere carried out for nine turbidity samples: 5, 10,15, 30, 50, 70, 100, 200, and 300 NTU. The turbidityremoval efciency of up to 89% was achieved for highinitial turbid water 300 NTU. However, for low turbidwater, its potential efciency declined. The resultsdemonstrate that the de-oiled extract is substantiallymore efcient than the crude extract in agglomerating colloidal particles of low initial turbidity samplesand achieved up to 76% removal rate. The results ofthe ANOVA confrmed that the regression model wassignifcant at (p<0.05) for residual turbidity afterthe treatment process. The study also demonstratesthat a pseudo-frst-order kinetic model matched wellthe nature of the removal of colloidal particles withMOSE in water to form focs. The study also indicatesthat the characteristics of water treated with crudeMOSE produce little change in electrical conductivityand salinity. However, the hardness and alkalinity ofwater decreased signifcantly depending on the initialhardness and the amount of MOSE applied (p<0.05).

Severe droughts and mismanagement of water resources during the last decades have propelled authorities in the Kurdistan Region to be concerned about better management of precipitation which is considered the primary source of recharging surface and groundwater in the area of interest. The drought cycles in the last decades have stimulated water stakeholders to drill more wells and store uncontrolled runoff in suitable structures during rainy times to fulfill the increased water demands. The optimum sites for rainwater harvesting sites in the Qaradaqh basin, which is considered a water-scarce area, were determined using the analytical hierarchy process (AHP), sum average weighted method (SAWM), and fuzzy-based index (FBI) techniques. The essential thematic layers within the natural and artificial factors were rated, weighted, and integrated via GIS and multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) approaches. As a consequence of the model results, three farm ponds and four small dams were proposed as future prospective sites for implementing rainwater harvesting structures. The current work shows that the unsuitable ratio over the study area in all methods AHP, SAWM, and FBI occupied 12.6%, 12.7%, and 14.2% respectively. The area under the curve (AUC) and receiver operating characteristics were used to validate the model outcomes. The AUC values range from 0.5 to 1, meaning that all MCDM results are good or are correctly selected. Based on the prediction rate curve for the suitability index map, the prediction accuracy was 72%, 57%, and 59% for AHP, SAWM, and fuzzy overlay, respectively. The final map shows that the potential sites for rainwater harvesting or suitable sites are clustered mainly in the northern and around the basin’s boundary, while unsuitable areas cover northeastern and some scatter zones in the middle due to restrictions of geology, distance to stream with the villages, and slope criteria. The total harvested runoff was 377,260 m3 from all the suggested structures. The proposed sites may provide a scientific and reasonable basis for utilizing this natural resource and minimize the impacts of future drought cycles.

Lack of land for waste disposal is one of the main problems facing urban areas in developing countries. The Sulaimaniyah Governorate, located in Northern Iraq, is one of the main cities of the country in the Kurdistan Region, covering an area of 2400 km2. Currently, there is no landfill site in the study region that meets the scientific and environmental requirements, and the inappropriate dumping of solid waste causes adverse effects to the environment, economic and urban aesthetic. To overcome this phenomenon, it is crucial to suggest a landfill site, even in countries that recycle or burn their waste to protect the environment. Landfill sites should be carefully selected taking into account all regulations and other restrictions. The integration of geographic information systems and the multi-criteria decision analysis were used in this study to select suitable landfill locations in the region. To this end, thirteen layers prepared according to their importance including slope, geology, land use, urban area, villages, rivers, groundwater, slope, elevation, soil, geology, road, oil and gas, land use, archaeology and power lines. Two different methods (simple additive weighting and analytic hierarchy process) were implemented in a geographical information system to obtain the suitability index map for candidate landfill sites, where all these conditions satisfied the scientific and environmental criteria adopted in this study. The comparison of the maps resulting from these two different methods demonstrates that both methods produced consistent results.

The Governorate of Sulaymaniyah is located in the north of Iraq with a population of 856 990 in 2016. The process of selecting a landfill site is considered as a complicated task with several factors and regulations to take into account. Currently, there are no landfill sites in the Sulaymaniyah Governorate that Governorate that respect the prerequisites of the scientific and environmental criteria. Therefore, in this study, thirteen suitable criteria were selected. These criteria are: groundwater depth, urban area, rivers, villages, soil types, elevation, roads, slope, land use, archaeological sites, power lines, oil and gas field, and geology. These criteria were used in the GIS (Geographic Information System), due to its high ability to manage and analyze various data. In addition, the AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process) method was used to derive the weightings of criteria, through a matrix of pairwise comparison. In this work, the study site was classified into four different areas according to the Suitability Index for landfill sites, where they all satisfied the scientific and environmental criteria. 

As the world’s population has grown, waste generation has increased rapidly. Solid waste management requires a greater knowledge of the composition, generation quantity, physical properties, and impacts of economic aspects. This paper clarified the status of municipal solid waste management across Sulaimaniyah governorate and presented a comprehensive overview and implication of poor solid waste management in the study area. The core aspects covered were the future estimations of the cumulative solid waste amount with population growth by 2040 using brief calculations of the waste generation rate from 2016. The results revealed that the daily per capita waste generation in the Sulaimaniyah governorate is 1.32 kg by 2040, a cumulative solid waste of about 10,445,829 tons, and an estimated volume of 9,146,368 m³ which will be required for the disposal site in the future. 

Lack of land for waste disposal is one of the main problems facing urban areas in developing countries. The Sulaimaniyah Governorate, located in northern Iraq, is one of the main cities of the country in the Kurdistan Region, covering an area of 2400 km². Currently, there is no landfill site in the study region that meets scientific and environmental requirements, inappropriate dumping of solid waste causes adverse effects on the environment, economic and urban aesthetic. To overcome with this phenomenon, it is very crucial to suggest a landfill site, even in countries that recycle or burn their waste to protect the environment. Landfill sites should be carefully selected by considering all regulations and other restrictions. The integration of geographic information systems and multi-criteria decision analysis is used in this study to select suitable landfill locations in the region, for this purpose, thirteen layers are prepared according to their importance including urban area, villages, rivers, groundwater depth, slope, elevation, soil types, geological formations, roads, oil and gas field, land use classification, archaeological site and power lines. Two different methods (simple additive weighting and analytic hierarchy process) are implemented in a geographical information system to obtain the suitability index map for candidate landfill sites, where all these sites satisfied the scientific and environmental criteria which were adopted in this study. The comparison of the maps resulting from these two different methods demonstrates that both methods produced consistent results.

Rapid growth in urbanized areas is a worldwide phenomenon. The rate of urban growth is very fast in developing countries like Iraq. This study illustrated urbanized area development in Sulaimaniyah Governorate from 2001 to 2017 using different Landsat imagery, Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) and Landsat Operational Land Imager (OLI). The Environment for visualizing images ENVI 5.3 and GIS software was utilized for image pre-processing, calibration and classification. The Maximum likelihood method was used in the accurately extracted solution information from geospatial Landsat satellite imagery of different periods. The Landsat images from the study area were categorized into six different classes. These are: forest, vegetation, rock, soil, built up and water body. Land cover variation and land use change detection in the area were calculated for over a 17 year period. The Change detection Analysis shows an explosive demographic shift in the urban area with a record of +8.99% which is equivalent to 51.80 km² over a 17 years period and the vegetation area increased with 214 km2. On the other hand, soil area was reduced by 257.87 km². This work will help urban planners in the future development of the city.

A shortage of land for waste disposal is one of the serious problems that faces urban areas in developing countries. The Sulaimaniyah Governorate, located in the north of Iraq, is one of the major cities in the Kurdistan Region of the country, covering an area of 2400 km² with a population of 856,990 in 2016. Currently, there is no landfill site in the study area that meets scientific and environmental criteria, and inappropriate solid waste dumping is causing negative environmental impacts. The process of landfill site selection is considered a complex process and is restricted by numerous factors and regulations. This paper proposes multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods in a model for landfill site decision. The model assumes the input of two groups of factors that need to satisfy the optimal values of weight coefficients. These groups of constants are natural factors and artificial factors, and they included thirteen selected criteria: slope, geology, land use, urban area, villages, rivers, groundwater, slope, elevation, soil, geology, road, oil and gas, land use, archaeology and power lines. The criteria were used in the geographic information system (GIS), which has a high capacity to process and analyze various data. In addition, multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methods followed by the weighted linear combination (WLC) method were used to derive criteria weightings using a matrix of pair-wise comparison. Finally, all the multi criteria decision methods were combined to obtain an intersection of the suitability index map for candidate landfill sites. Seven appropriate sites for landfill were suggested, all of which satisfied the scientific and environmental criteria which were adopted in this study.