The Inflence of Rivers and Climate on Baghdad, Iraq
The Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, along with their reaction to the climate, have both helped and hurt Baghdad, Iraq. The rivers provided pathways to other civilizations, allowing Baghdad to grow into the transportation and cultural center of Iraq. Its fertile soil, deposited by flooding, provided the area with the ability to become the birthplace of civilization through tremendous agricultural production. Although the flooding of the rivers greatly enhanced the area, it has also had disastrous effects, severely damaging food production and the culture of its people.
Baghdad’s geographical location has allowed the city to flourish due to the availability of transportation. The Tigris and Euphrates Rivers have encouraged trade between societies, enhancing cultural and economic development. Every new development of transportation has helped the expansion of Baghdad, an example being the invention of the steamboat. The relatively fast moving ships brought significant wealth to the area by permitting more frequent communication and travel to other societies. Less navigable sections of the rivers were later made passable by the establishment of navigation channels.
The need for more transportation systems led to the construction of railways, including more than thirty bridges crossing the rivers which connect Baghdad with much of the rest of the country.1 Baghdad, possessing vast highways, railways, canals, and an airport as a result of its ease of development by geographic and climatic advantages, is the center of Iraqi transportation.
The hot, arid summer climate of Iraq precipitates next to no rain, causing winter rains to significantly increase water levels. The clima...
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1 Railroads, Water Resources
2 Al-Obaidi, Hisham and Toumia, Noor J., History of Iraq
3 Al-Mukhtar, Ghazwan, “WTI testemony from Iraq: Baghdad, occupied Iraq ”
4 Eating the Iraq Way
5 Railroads, Water Resources
6 Office of the Iraq Programme Oil-for-Food, Oil-for-Food
The Ancient Land of Iraq From the ancient land of Iraq emerged complex irrigation systems and
Water scarcity is a crucial issue in a country called Djibouti. Djibouti lies in “The Horn of Africa” which is a peninsula in Northeast Africa. However, due to climate change and variability, refugees from Somalia and poverty, Djibouti is now considered an extremely water poor country. The aim of this report is to inform the government about the water crisis in Djibouti and that climate change is one of the main factors that cause it.
Iraq contains a large quantity of paved roads. Due to a lack of car ownership, most Iraqis in major cities travel via taxi or bus. Both cellphones and landlines are commonplace. Iraq is mostly industrialized, meaning they largely have the same technology as the rest of the world. The majority of the industry is oil. Currently, the health care in Iraq is awful. Iraqi doctors are rare and the hospitals lack sufficient staff. Cholera and Typhoid are widespread. Also, due to food shortages, many of the Iraqi citizens are suffering.
Baghdad was a city flourishing with culture and was the capital of the Islamic Empire during its Golden Age under the Abbasid Dynasty. Unlike the preceding militaristic Umayyad rulers, the Abbasids had focused on maintaining the empire. The capital was changed from Damascus to Baghdad, which was accessible by the Tigris and Euphrates River as well as the Mediterranean Sea, and the Indian Ocean. Its location made it ideal for trade along the Silk Roads and maritime trade. Caravans traveled along the roads with goods that were traded with places as far as China where they imported silk and porcelain (Stearns). Islam expanded the Silk Roads helping to promote trade and a stable economy. The trade routes not only helped to spread goods but along with it came the Islamic culture and knowledge into different parts of the world. These empires benefited each other as new ideas lead to innovations and progression.
As we know that water is very essential for our lives. With the increasing population the demand of natural water becoming high as it is used for commercial, residential and industrial purposes and water resources becoming less day by day. Global warming and climate change is one of the main reasons of reducing the rainfall and we don’t know how badly it will affect our rainfall system in near future.
The ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt were both facilitated by rivers that ran in their midst. The Euphrates and Tigris rivers ran through Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt had the Nile that provided the ancient Egyptians extremely fertile land. The way the Egyptians and Mesopotamians traded were different because Egyptians were lucky because they lived right next to the Niles. The Nile river influenced the
The Nile River had lots of floods. This brought new, richer soil to the farmers so they learned to adapt. The floods were also good because Egypt was mostly a barren desert, except for the Nile River. The deserts did protect from invaders but there was also limited living space. Because of this, people crowded around the Nile, which was one of the many difficulties that this civilization had to face.
Two rivers that pass through the Fertile Crescent were the Tigris and Euphrates, and the area they pass through was formerly known as Mesopotamia. The word Mesopotamia itself means, “land between two rivers.” Mesopotamia is often referred to as the “cradle of civilization” because, one of the earliest and most influential civilizations was developed, invented many different things that help people now in the present, and the two rivers helped many people recognize new ways to do things.;
Transportation was important because people were moving to live in the city. During this time period, moving heavy products such as coal and iron was cheaper through waterways. Due to this, canals were adjusted to be widened and deepened to allow more boats to pass. During that time period people would travel using animals or by foot, but there were many problems with the states of the roads. They were in bad conditions for being muddy, flooding easily, and filled with stones.
Although a vast majority of rainfall happens within the months of November to April in Syria, the winter of 2007-2008 was the driest ever recorded. Even though Syria is no stranger to multiyear dry spells, and this most recent drought was longer and harsher, other reasons contributed to the resulted disparity unseen in past droughts. Demand for resources were much higher than previous droughts since Syria’s population rose from 4 million in the 1950s, to more than 22 million in recent years. Additionally, the modern Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad demanded agricultural growth within his country using up groundwater resources more rapidly than previous years. Thus, the supply of groundwater significantly decreased with increased extraction and no replenishment from rainfall. Furthermore, this recent drought quickly followed a drought in the 1990s preventing sufficient replenishment before the recent drought in 2006-2011. In fact, scientists discovered Syria’s rainfall fell below normal amounts in the past fifteen years, even when the country was not technically in a drought period. Turkey’s eastern Taurus Mountain range supplies water to Syria and much of the Middle East through the Euphrates and Tigris River and their numerous tributaries. However, Turkey controls water flow through upstream dams. In light
First of all, one climate’s change is due to the drying of the marshes in Iraq. The marshes is a wetland area located in southern Iraq. Today, less than 10% of the original marsh remains. While some of the marsh declines can be traced to dams built upstream in Turkey, Syria and Iran, the decline accelerated dramatically in the early 1990s.Due to a massive drainage project. Lately, the past government shut all of the dams on the waterways, bringing on desertification of the area. There is an absence of Horticulture and Fisheries in the Iraq district. For this situation, the administration must open the dams to water all the area and dispose of desertification.
Transportation through water is also a very simple, yet significant and relevant innovation that connects many places to each other. Clay pottery reveals the use of water vessels as far back as 4,000 BCE in Egypt. This makes sense, as they were utilizing what’s known as the longest river on Earth: the Nile River. To navigate around the waterways, these ancient vessels features oars and sails. Ancient forms of boats can be traced to many regions of the world, but not many stuck because of how unadvanced they were.
Nestled between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, is a stretch of land called the Fertile Crescent,
(Sharma,1997). So by gauging precipitation levels around arid and semi-arid regions meteorologists can approximate as to how ‘at risk’ the area is. As without a decent supply of precipitation, soil infrastructure and fertility will decline due to a lack of moisture and the denaturing of the surrounding biota i.e. roots and nutrient cycles (Sharma,1997). National monthly rainfall index (NMRI... ... middle of paper ... ...
Transport in a historical context is important to look at when confronting the ideas of transportation shaping the modern world. The developments throughout history show each consequence of new technologies on civilisations and individuals. The first formation of societies would rely on migration to provide the basic human needs of food, water and shelter, where as I believe today we are focused on individual personal gain through business and leisure. Places of rich resources would be a home until all source of food had become depleted resulting in an outreach towards new sources of nourishment, however today basic needs are in constant supply due to the introduction of agriculture and importation. I put forward the argument that transport in the context of a city structure is in place to promote growth. The growth of...