Assessing the Impact of Climate Change on Temperature and Rainfall Patterns in Iraq's Northern Desert Using GIS

Climate change is the most significant issue confronting the world.Rainfall and temperature are the most significant climate variables that can indicate climate change.The current study aims to investigate the effect of climate change on the distribution of rainfall and temperature in Iraq.This can be done by analyzing changes in temperature and rainfall, the general trends of these changes, and their impact on development in Anbar Governorate.The study was conducted in the northern desert in the western part of Iraq.Six weather stations, including Ramadi, Haditha, Anah, Qaim, Rutba, and Nakheb, were used to analyze the characteristics of temperature and rainfall for the period from 1980 to 2020.The average monthly data were divided into four decades to clarify the effect of climate change on the study area.ArcGIS version 10.8 was used to perform interpolation.GIS techniques were employed to draw contour line maps, which are a popular method for representing surfaces using lines that connect points with equal rainfall depth (mm) or temperature ().The Mann-Kendall trend test and Sen's slope estimator were utilized to analyze the trend direction.The results showed that the amount of change in temperature and rainfall during the 40-year study period was 0.86 and -47.97 mm, respectively.The results show that climate change has a strong effect on the distribution of rainfall and temperature.The spatial analysis using GIS for average temperature and rainfall data over the investigated time periods clarifies that there is a strong trend in temperature distribution and a declining trend in rainfall distribution during the four decades.According to the result, the temperature was higher in the fourth decade than it was in the first decade.In contrast, the rainfall was lower in the fourth decade than it was in the first decade.