Vol 5 No 1 (2023)

Groundwater is an essential natural water resource that supplies the population for various domestic, agricultural, and industrial uses. Mandali Basin, located in Diyala Governorate, in the eastern side of Iraq, was investigated during the fieldwork in 2024. The results showed that the unconfined aquifer consists of interbedded of Bai Hassan formation and Quaternary deposits. The average thickness of this aquifer was 46 meters, while the average water permeability (transmissivity) was 112 square meters/day, with 655 cubic meters/day of maximum yields. The direction of groundwater movement begins from the north-eastern part towards the south-western part in the studied area. The distribution map of salinity of groundwater demonstrates increasing values on the western side of the area. The physical and chemical parameters indicate a continental origin of the groundwater, as it is brackish to saline water. The calcium sulfate was the dominant groundwater type. The groundwater is mainly useful for livestock and irrigation purposes, while some samples indicate its use for human benefits. The area between Mandali and Qazaniya towns reflects a qualified location to increase well drilling, where the aquifer thickness, transmissivity, and maximum yields increase, while salinity decreases.

A strategy for quantitative analysis of mono- and polysystemic organization of multi-level geospaces is described, with the construction of a series of empirical models of inter-component and inter-complex connections. The “micro-” and “macrosubstrate” approaches to the structural and functional analysis of the state of the natural environment are combined. As a methodological basis, a provision on the structural levels of natural-territorial organization is proposed, based on the conceptual cybernetic model of the natural complex as a hierarchical control system. A cybernetic model of the natural complex has been created as a hierarchical control system; the model has enriched modern ideas about the mechanisms and structural  levels  of  the  spatial  organization of  the natural environment. Model has enriched modern ideas about the mechanisms and structural levels of the spatial organization of the natural environment. An experiment was performed in order to analysis the state of geographical spaces by three  blocks of cybernetic model: landscape frame, processor, and landscape pattern.  Based on this model, a system of conjugation of different-level characteristics of natural components with the taxonomic rank of geographic spaces (from the geographical sector and natural zone to landscape facies and biogeocoenosis) was constructed. Using the Volga River basin as an example, a comparative assessment of environmental factors in their landscape-forming influence was carried out.

The main aim of groundwater studies is to assess the physical and chemical characterizations of water-bearing layers as a goal for assessing their suitability for various purposes Wasit Governorate, which is located in eastern Iraq, is an important area in terms of agriculture and poultry and livestock husbandry. The area mainly depends on groundwater, especially on the Iraqi-Iranian border. The area was investigated (40) wells inventoried during the field study and used to demonstrate the hydrogeological and hydrochemical properties. The groundwater aquifer is composed of Quaternary deposits and Mukdadiyah formation. The mean thickness, transmissivity, and maximum yields were 53 meters, 114 m²/day, and 600 m³/day, respectively. The groundwater moved partially to the western parts and mainly towards the southern parts of the area towards Shuwaicha Marsh, which is located outside the study area. The salinity map showed a regular decrease in salinity concentrations towards the central and southwestern parts of the area due to groundwater recharge from infiltrated surface water. The groundwater is brackish to saline, with two dominant calcium and sodium sulphate types. The central area between Zurbatia and Badra towns can be a qualified location to increase well drilling due to salinity decreasing as the transmissivity and maximum yields increase.

One of the most dynamic natural processes on the planetary scale are changes in the global climate caused by changed chemical composition of atmosphere, with the corresponding demonstration of greenhouse effect. Global geosystem monitoring is most up-to-date and actually realizable on the scale of individual ecological regions. However, natural processes and events on the regional hierarchic level are characterized by the greatest diversity and high discreteness, therefore the regional response of global climatic changes inevitably takes the form of multiple reactions of vegetation, soils and landscapes as a whole to background climatic signals. The regional and local levels of geo-ecological prognoses still have not been developed enough due to insufficiency of factual material and methodical difficulties of the transfer of hydro-climatic prognosis from global to regional and local.The report expounds the main statements of original topo-ecological concept of prediction: “Global Changes on the Local Level”, as a basis of terrestrial  bio-ecological and geosystem monitoring under global anthropogenic climatic changes. This concept makes it possible to carry out local empirical simulation of the regional bioclimatic trend and thereby reveal the mechanisms of transmission of global and regional climate signals to the local level. Objects of research are forest and forest-steppe landscape-zonal systems of the headwater of the Volga River basin. They are included in the boreal ecotone of Northern Eurasia as the territory most sensitive to climate change and, accordingly, very favorable for the development of theory and methods of environmental monitoring. The conservation and reproduction of forest resources under changing climatic conditions at the southern boundary of temperate forest zone, where forest communities are in conditions close to critical, is one of the fundamental ecological problems. The strategic goal of monitoring research is to reveal the environmental potential of sustainablility of forest ecosystems in the context of modern global warming.

One of the most important ways to achieve the goals stipulated by the Paris (2015) Agreement on Climate Change is to solve a two-fold task: 1) the absorption of CO₂ by the forest communities from the atmosphere during global warming and 2) their adaptation to these climate changes, which should ensure the effectiveness of adsorption itself. Given report presents the regional experience of the numerical solution of this task. Calculations of the carbon balance of forest formations in the Oka-Volga River basin were carried out for global forecasts of moderate and extreme warming. The proposed index of labile elastic-plastic stability of forest ecosystems, which characterizes their isomorphic-restorative potential, was used as an indicator of adaptation.   For the territory of the Oka river basin  using multiple regression methods, a numerical experiment was conducted to assess the effect of the elastic stability of forest formations and the predicted climatic conditions on the carbon balance. A total of 11 linear equations were obtained (with a significance level of P <10^-6). In the upcoming 100-year forecast period, the overall elastic-plastic stability of forest formations should increase, and to the greatest extent with extreme warming. Accordingly, one should expect a significant increase in the ability of boreal forests to absorb greenhouse gases. A comparison of the carbon balance values ​​of forest formations obtained with initial (base) and final (final) stability indices gives an unambiguous picture of a significant increase in the adsorption capacity of boreal forests with an increase in their regenerative potential. A decisive contribution to increasing the adsorption of greenhouse gases is made by the growth of reforestation adaptation, which plays the role of a direct environmental factor.