As part of the scientific activities of the Department of Water Resources Engineering, a workshop was organised in collaboration with universities, government departments, and institutions, and in coordination with the Continuing Education Unit at the College of Engineering. The workshop was held under the patronage of the Dean of the College, Professor Dr Ghassan Hamid Abdul-Majeed, and supervised by the Head of the Department, Professor Dr Basim Shaba Abed.
The workshop hosted Senior Engineer Raafat Nael Abdul-Ghani, who gave a detailed presentation on the “WaPOR” portal of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). This portal is used to monitor water productivity through open access to remotely sensed data. He explained that the portal monitors and reports on water productivity in agriculture, particularly in Africa and the Middle East, and provides open access to a comprehensive database containing thousands of basic map layers.
The portal allows users to directly utilise the data to conduct time-series analyses, regional statistics, and download data related to key variables for evaluating water and land productivity.
The workshop concluded with several recommendations, most notably that the “WaPOR” portal offers free and sustainable data covering vast geographic areas. This data can be utilised to spatially and temporally track irrigation performance, and the performance measurements can be used for planning and implementing irrigation improvements.
The workshop was held on Monday, 23 December 2024, in the Dijla Hall of the Department of Water Resources Engineering, with the attendance of the Head of the Department, several faculty members, staff, and students.
