The Department of Earth Sciences, in cooperation with the Continuing Education Unit at the University of Baghdad, has launched its own research plan on dust storms within the project entitled “Technological incubators and the productive university” in the presence of the dean of the college, Prof. Dr. Abdul Karim al-Qazzaz, his assistant for scientific affairs and a number of students, researchers and guests concerned in this topic from outside the college. The project aimed to identify the cases of climate change, which is one of the very important topics affecting the future of countries and peoples in Iraq, which was classified as one of the countries negatively affected by these changes and which were reflected on several human and environmental issues of life, including the spread of the phenomenon of desertification, decrease in the area of agricultural land, as well as a lack of water imports and rainfall and an increase in the frequency and occurrence of dust storms at present.
The project was presented by the head of the department of earth sciences, Assist. Prof. Dr. Salam al-Dulaimi, while the introductory lecture was delivered by Dr. Hassan Katouf who highlighted the increasing frequency of dust storms in the country, which are dangerous phenomena affecting public health, causing the spread of respiratory diseases and indicating that the scientific research movement must be activated nowadays in order to understand the reasons behind these changes and trying to find solutions that mitigate their negative effects. The project also worked to provide those concerned with it, samples of dust storms and periods exceeding the last eight years, which are classified and preserved in a scientific way with the analysis and information available about them, as well as samples of dust storms and sand dunes collected from various fields in Iraq.
