On Monday morning, 05/10/2020, at the Department of Geography and Geographic Information Systems, College of Arts, University of Basra, A PhD Dissertation entitled The Estimation of Water Rationing to Plant Vegetable Crops in the Alluvial Plain of Basra Governorate was discussed.

The dissertation, which is presented by student Mohammed Hashim Hussein, included three chapters. The first chapter discusses the natural factors affecting water rationing to plant vegetable crops in the alluvial of Basra governorate. The second chapter investigates the agricultural reality and the estimation of water rationing to plant vegetable crops in the alluvial of Basra governorate. Moreover, the third chapter explains the problems related to water rationing used in planting vegetable crops and how to solve them.

The objective of the dissertation is to define the relation between (evaporation/ potential transpiration) and (evaporation/ transpiration) of crops to extract water requirements, explaining the geographical factors which affects it. It also aims to estimate water field losses volume,  transportation losses of crops and the amount of water rationing to plant vegetable crops within the study area for the summer agricultural season (2018) and winter season (2018/2019).

The dissertation concluded that planting vegetables in the study area faces some problems such as relative temperature increase, intensity and prevalence of the dry northwest wind during the two agricultural seasons in the study area, which leads to dust storms, soil drought, and the increase of water losses of crops and humidity rates, especially during the summer agricultural season, leading to soil drought and the increase of water loss rates.

The dissertation recommends applying water rationing in planting vegetable crops that the researcher studied, taking into consideration that the needs of water rationing vary from one type of crop to another. In addition, the variation within the same type according to the stage of growth, taking into account the daily and seasonal climate changes.