Ecosystems provide humans with services that include benefits from food, fresh water, climate regulation, and socio-economic assets. The Mesopotamian marshlands are among the largest wetlands in the Middle East and they provide various benefits. However, ecosystem services of the Marshlands are consistently undervalued in national economic analysis and decision making. This study focusses on the Central Marshes, the first National Park in Iraq, and is the first attempt at valuing a series of ecosystem services from a valuable natural ecosystem in Iraq. We adopted the Toolkit for Ecosystem Services Site-Based Assessment (TESSA) for the determination of biophysical and economic values of services at the site level. Data on key ecosystem services (as determined by 30 interviews with residents of the Marshes) included the trading of fish, harvested plants, water buffalo milk, and fodder were collected across six months in 2014. We valued the ecosystem services within the CM (40,000 ha) over a 6-month period to have a total value of 860,078.23 USD. This estimated total value was the sum of 86,637.25 USD from harvested plants, 551,334.80 USD from trading fish, 167, 303.70 USD from trading water buffalo milk, and 54,804.00 USD from trading fodder. The average income per individual in Iraq in 2014 was 6720 USD (World Bank data - https://data.worldbank.org/country/iraq): thus, the CM provided an average salary for 256 people. Our results provided greater understanding of the ecosystem services contributed by the Central Marshes and has highlighted the crucial role of nature in supporting sustainable well-being for humans living in the area. In addition, the results can be used to enhance local policy, to aid management plans of the National park, and to estimate lost and damage that could result from impact of climate change on the area.
The problem of steady, laminar, natural convective flow in an square enclosure with and without partitions is considered for Rayleigh number (103-106) and Prandtl number (0.7). Vertical walls were maintained isothermal at different temperatures while horizontal walls and the partitions were insulated. The length of partition was taken constant. The number of partitions were placed on horizontal surface in staggered arrangement from (1– 3) and ratio of partition thickness (H/L= 0.033, 0.083, 0.124). The problem is formulated in terms of the vorticity-stream function procedure. A numerical solution based on a program in Fortran 90 with the finite difference method is obtained. Representative results illustrating the effects of the thickn
... Show MoreObjectives: This study aimed to evaluate and compare the effect of plasma treatment versus conventional treatment on the micro shear bond strength (μSBS), surface roughness, and wettability of three different CAD/CAM materials. Materials and methods: Sixty cylindrical specimens (5 mm diameter ×3 mm height) were prepared from three different CAD/CAM materials: Group A: Zirconia, Group B: Lithium disilicate, and Group C: Resin nano-ceramic. Each group was subdivided into two subgroups according to surface treatment used: Subgroup I: Conventional treatment, zirconia was sandblasted with Al2O3, while lithium disilicate and resin nano-ceramic were etched with hydrofluoric acid. Subgroup II: Plasma treatment, the surface of each material was tr
... Show MoreThe research aimed to use HIIT exercises, and to know the effect of HIIT exercises on some physiological and physical indicators of the young badminton players, and to identify the degree of competition anxiety and the performance of some offense skills among the young badminton players. The research community (the young badminton players), the research sample and its selection method (the research sample was chosen by the intentional method (8) badminton player from the Athwari Club), the scientific method (the experimental method with pre and post tests), measurement tools: physiological tests (high and low blood pressure) , pulse, and physical exams (explosive force of arms and legs) and the offense skills and the scale of competition an
... Show MoreThe research aimed to use HIIT exercises, and to know the effect of HIIT exercises on some physiological and physical indicators of the young badminton players, and to identify the degree of competition anxiety and the performance of some offense skills among the young badminton players. The research community (the young badminton players), the research sample and its selection method (the research sample was chosen by the intentional method (8) badminton player from the Athwari Club), the scientific method (the experimental method with pre and post tests), measurement tools: physiological tests (high and low blood pressure) , pulse, and physical exams (explosive force of arms and legs) and the offense skills and the scale of competit
... Show MoreEnvironmental risk growing Become challenge "and a matter of controversy and concern to many of those concerned with environment, social, economic, and the same happens with the administrative rather than in isolation for this movement, as the issues of climate change Disturbed and troubled him, especially after what caused the risk of destruction, and irresponsibility , chaos, and the futility of resources, crops, fields, nature and homes and reactors, and after what happened in Japan from the scourge of "Hurricane tsunami " and earthquakes successive accompanied him and what became of him by surprise catastrophic affected the economy and the univ
... Show MoreIn this paper, the Reliability Analysis with utilizing a Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) process was conducted on the equation of the collapse potential predicted by ANN to study its reliability when utilized in a situation of soil that has uncertainty in its properties. The prediction equation utilized in this study was developed previously by the authors. The probabilities of failure were then plotted against a range of uncertainties expressed in terms of coefficient of variation. As a result of reliability analysis, it was found that the collapse potential equation showed a high degree of reliability in case of uncertainty in gypseous sandy soil properties within the specified coefficient of variation (COV) for each property. When t
... Show MoreThe process of evaluating and measuring tax performance is critical to support the tax collection process. The comparison of the amount of revenue collection with what is expected and the process of measuring tax performance continuously by the tax administration leads to increase the collection of tax, determine the size of deviations and stand and know the reasons and take the necessary measures to address them to get a better result in the future. According to the different tasks assigned to them, criteria and indicators for measuring the tax performance vary from one organization to another. These are indicators or criteria that measure tax revenue (i.e., amounts). One of the research's main findings was to raise the tax collection leve
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