Tigris and Euphrates Rivers: Their Environment from Headwaters to Mouth

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xxiii

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2. Introduction

   • Laith A. Jawad

   Pages 1-9

3. Historical Perspectives

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 11-11

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   2. Vertebrates of Upper Mesopotamia: Present Evidence and Archaeological Data

      • Marco Masseti

      Pages 13-72

   3. Fishing Gears and Methods: A Comparison of Ancient Mesopotamia and Other Ancient Worlds

      • Laith A. Jawad

      Pages 73-84

   4. Ichthyological Characteristics Available in the Fish Images Existed in the Art of the Ancient Mesopotamia

      • Laith A. Jawad

      Pages 85-126

   5. The Effectiveness of Ancient Mesopotamian Medical Practices: The Example of šūšu-Licorice

      • JoAnn Scurlock

      Pages 127-167

4. The Abiotic Aspects of the Tigris–Euphrates River System

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 169-169

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   2. Management of Water Resources Using Storage Reservoirs

      • Kazimierz A. Salewicz, Maiko Sakamoto, Mikiyasu Nakayama

      Pages 171-204

   3. Estimation of Irrigated Agricultural Area and Water Consumption in Iraq

      • Yukio Tanaka

      Pages 205-228

   4. The Nature of Tigris–Euphrates Rivers Flow: Current Status and Future Prospective

      • Zaher Mundher Yaseen, Sadeq Oleiwi Sulaiman, Adel Sharif

      Pages 229-242

   5. Streamflow Alteration Impacts with Particular Reference to the Lower Zab River, Tributary of the Tigris River

      • Ruqayah Mohammed, Miklas Scholz

      Pages 243-273

   6. Ecohydrology in Iraq: Challenges and its Future Pathways

      • Laith A. Jawad

      Pages 275-284

   7. Oil Pollution in the Shatt Al-Arab River and its Estuary 1980–2018

      • Faris J. M. Al-Imarah, Hamid T. Al-Saad

      Pages 285-297

   8. Pesticides in the Waters, Sediments, and Biota of the Shatt Al-Arab River for the Period 1980–2017

      • Hamid T. Al-Saad, Faris J. M. Al-Imarah

      Pages 299-308

   9. Surface Water Salinity of the Euphrates, Tigris, and Shatt al-Arab Rivers

      • Khayyun Amtair Rahi, Todd Halihan

      Pages 309-336

   10. Renewable Energy for Water–Energy Nexus in Euphrates and Tigris River Basin: A Literature Review

       • Furat Dawood

       Pages 337-367

   11. Impacts of Dams on Aquatic Biodiversity, Fisheries, Fishes and Their Environment: Problems that Could Be Present in Iraq with Recommendations

       • Laith A. Jawad

       Pages 369-382

   12. Water, Politics and Dams in the Mesopotamia Basin of the Northern Middle East: How Turkey Instrumentalises the South-Eastern Anatolia Project for Political, Military and Strategic Interests

       • Joost Jongerden, Zeynep Sıla Akıncı, Ercan Ayboğa

       Pages 383-399

   13. Dams and their Impacts on Fishes in Iran

       • Hamed Mousavi-Sabet

       Pages 401-420

The system of the Tigris-Euphrates Rivers is one of the great river systems of southwestern Asia. It comprises the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, which follow roughly parallel courses through the heart of the Middle East. The lower portion of the region that they run through is known as Mesopotamia, was one of the cradles of civilisation.

There are several environmental factors that govern the nature of the two rivers and shape the landscape the two rivers running through. Geological events create rivers, climate monitor the water supply, the surrounding land influences the vegetation and the physical and chemical features of water.

The Tigris-Euphrates system runs through the territory of four countries, Iraq, Iran, Turkey and Syria. Therefore, any scientific approach to the environment of these two rivers should include the natural history events in these countries.

The book "Tigris and Euphrates Rivers: Their Environment from Headwaters to Mouth" will be divided into nine parts. These parts deal with the issues of the environment, the status of the flora and fauna, the abiotic aspects, ecology, hydrological regime of the two rivers, the biotic aspects. Water resources, stress of the environment, conservation issues.

Since the book of Julian Rzoska "Euphrates and Tigris Mesopotamian Ecology and Destiny" in 1980, no book or major reference has been published that includes between its cover the facts and information that the present book will present. Therefore, the importance of the present book falls in stating the present status of the environment of the two rivers and the comparison of their environment between now and that of 37 years ago as given by J. Rzoska (1980).

The recent studies showed that there are a large number of natural and political events that happened within the last three decades in the area of the Tigris-Euphrates river system that for sure have done a great change to the environmentof the two rivers and consequently changing the biological and non-biological resources of the two rivers.

This book will be a reference book to both Academic and students across the Middle East in different disciplines of knowledge to use in their researches on Tigris-Euphrates river system. The scholars interested in this area will use this book as a guide to compare this freshwater system with other areas in Asia and the world. 

• Aquatic Ecology
• Aquatic Sciences
• River System
• Middle East
• Iraq
• Anatolia
• Syria
• Hydrology

• School of Environmental and Animal Sciences, Unitec Institute of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand

  Laith A. Jawad

Laith A. Jawad obtained MSc in Fish Taxonomy from the Zoology Department, University of Bristol, UK, in 1980. He then worked as a fish taxonomist at Basrah University, Iraq, for more than 20 years before moving to New Zealand in 1997. During this time, he founded the biochemical taxonomy of fishes of Iraq and published over 400 scientific papers and book reviews in leading scientific journals. He is the author and co-author of several biology textbooks published in Arabic. Recently, he contributed five chapters to the book Coastal Fishes: Habitat, Behaviour and Conservation, published by Nova Publishers, Canada. He also authored the book Dangerous Fishes of the Eastern and Southern Arabian Peninsula, published by Springer in 2017. He served as a fish biodiversity expert and consultant at the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries in Oman between 2008 and 2012, during which he co-authored two papers describing a new fish species in the Omani waters and reported over 80 fish species in Omani waters. He authored a guide to the fishes of the southern coasts of Oman published by the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries in Oman in 2018. He also published over 90 papers on the fish fauna of Oman, Iraq, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia. In 2013, he started research collaborations with over 100 scientists from more than 50 countries around the globe investigating various aspects of fish taxonomy and ichthyology.

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