Restoration of Al-Sanaf Marsh under Various Operation Conditions

The dried Iraqi marshlands were re-flooded after the year 2003. Because of the water shortage feeds the marshes during the last years, the re-flooded marshes began to dry again. The Al-Sanaf marsh is part of the Al Hammar marsh located in the Thi Qar province. It is not separated hydraulically from the Al Hanunar marsh. The study suggested separating the two marshes by replacing the culverts under security dyke with uncontrolled weir to keep the area of Al-Sanaf marsh submerged. If there is any added water, it will cross from the suggested structure to the Al Hammar marsh. A hydrodynamic and water quality muting models (RMA2 and RMA4) were prepared based on mass conservation low, mass balance model, and four scenarios were applied for the Al-Sanaf marsh based on the incoming discharges. The suggested model was calibrated with field data measured in the marsh. The four suggested scenarios are to keep the requirement of the Al-Sanaf marsh restoration. The maximum submerged area of the marsh is 100 km(2) under any operation conditions while this area was reduced to 72 km(2) under low flow conditions (minimum inflow from the feeders). The three scenarios operated considering values of inflow from Euphrates River with the required inflow from Al Khamissiya canal to keep the minimum level of salinity in the submerged area. While the fourth scenario operated with the minimum value of discharge from all feeders.