This study highlights the groundwater hydrogeochemical characteristics and processes (hydrochemistry characteristics, ion exchange, and salinization) and quality suitability assessment for irrigation purposes from five wells in the Greenbelt area located in northwestern Al-Najaf Governorate, Iraq. The suitability of groundwater for irrigation was assessed based on the irrigation water quality index (IWQI) for thirteen parameters and groundwater quality indices such as total dissolved solids (TDS), electrical conductivity (EC), sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), soluble sodium percent (SSP), residual sodium carbonate (RSC), total hardness (TH), permeability index (PI), potential salinity (PS), Kelley’s ratio (KR), and magnesium hazard ratio (MHR). The IWQI’s average values ranged between 76–139. The results of IWQI for the first and second sampling sites showed values of 139 and 104, respectively, indicating that the groundwater was unsuitable and unsafe for irrigation. In contrast, the IWQI for the third, fourth, and fifth sites were 83, 97, and 76, respectively, indicating that the groundwater was safe and possibly used for irrigation. The EC, TDS, PS, and MHR indices were all found to be unsuitable for irrigation in all five sites, and the KR index was also found to be unsuitable for agricultural irrigation in about 80% of the sites, while it was found that the indices of SAR, SSP, RSC, PI, and TH for all sites were suitable and safe for irrigation. As a result of this study, it has been determined that groundwater in the study area is unsuitable for agricultural irrigation. For sustainable groundwater exploitation, it is advised that a continuous water-quality-monitoring program should be implemented, as well as the development of suitable management practices.

The need to improve the performance and coverage of the existing public transport network in Baghdad has become necessary recently, as it has witnessed rapid urban expansion and random changes in land use beyond what was planned for. Therefore, the study worked on designing a public transport route network that provides greater coverage and meets the actual demand of the city based on the criteria of population density and land use. Using the ArcMap 10.4 program, a classified map was created (1-10) that integrates these criteria and links them to the main street network in Baghdad in the form of a cost, which representing the level of public transport demand for all segment of the road network. It was analyzed and new proposal routes were generated to provide better coverage for the study area. Finally, the study recommended relying on international standards and geomatics techniques in designing public transport routes in Baghdad.

The expansions of cities and continuous urbanization have prepared comprehensive urban plans necessary. The important thing about these plans is to determine their success, efficiency, and feasibility. The expansion of the city comes because of the population increase or investment. When the expansion of cities precedes the updating of its master plans and the development of alternative plans to accommodate these expansions, it is normal that finds irregularities in use and differences between the master plan and real land use. Therefore, the main purpose of this paper is to examine the extent of illegal changes in the current situation in comparison with master plans. Also, the efficiency of artificial neural network models is evaluated to predict illegal land-use changes. The old master plan (1990-2010) and the new one (2010-2030) was used with two high-resolution satellite images dated 2010 and 2018. To determine changes between the status quo and the uses defined in the master plan, the required information tables were completed by field visit with questioner made for Al-hay City. Neural network models were used to evaluate the survey, data was divided into two parts training and testing then a neural network model was performed on them after testing the results using the neural network model, the results present that the accuracy of about 85% for the old master plan and pass 91% for the updated master plan. The largest percentage of differences between the real use and master plan for the year 2010 was in (Religious use, Parking, Gas stations, then government use, green areas, educational use, and residential), but note that the largest percentage of differences between the real use and master plan for the year 2018 were in (Religious use, Athletic use, Green areas, then commercial and governmental uses).

Baghdad capital of Iraq has experienced rapid urban expansion recently, and suffers from a poor public bus network, resulting in severe and continual traffic congestion. This study assesses the spatial efficiency of public transportation services using a multi-criteria analysis based on Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The assessment integrates three criteria: population density for 2025, land use patterns, and traffic congestion intensity. The spatial analysis was conducted by creating a heat map of ten classes illustrating the levels of public transportation demand in Baghdad, then comparing it with the distribution and service coverage of the current bus network, by implementing 500 meters buffer service on each side of every currently operational route. The analysis revealed several areas with high transportation demand located outside the current bus service area. Conversely, the evaluation results for each route showed numerous inefficient routes that failing to meet high demand areas while passing through lower demand zones, indicating that the network was not built on scientific and planning principles to keep pace with current growth. This highlights the need to optimize existing routes or redesign the network to contribute to sustainable urban transit and to cover high-demand areas suffering from a lack of services.

The geographic information systems are applied in the transportation analysis of AlMada’an city about 30 km southeast of Baghdad city in Iraq. Cities suffer from traffic jams, especially during peak hours. These traffic jams increase in special circumstances such as blocking a certain road for maintenance, security reasons, or during religious events. The work required the establishment of the street layers of AlMada’an city and addressing all the problems and errors that accompany the work to reach the construction of an integrated transport network with all network details. Alternatives and hypotheses included the blocking of a particular road and searching for an alternative road that represents the easy path between two ends. Geomedia Transportation analysis software is used in this application to solve the problems and achieve the aims of the study. Many cases and trials were applied for different road segments in the network to check the application efficiency. The test reflects excellent results everywhere, so we suggest using the application to help local government to find alternatives before blocking any road to avoid crowds. Also, we suggest using the software when entering the street layers into a GIS where its techniques help builds a network.