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Qualifying the geotechnical and hydrological characteristic of the Bandawaya... 319
Key words: geotechnical characteristics, hy-
drology, Bandawaya, dam, stream valley,
Northern Iraq
Introduction
Hydrological systems are critically
important for maintaining vital water sup-
plies, which alarmingly deplete every
day. Suitable structures are necessary to
maintain permanent or seasonal vapor
surface runoff or basic flow. This water
is used for improving soil moisture avail-
ability, recharge the groundwater, circum-
vent extreme runoff, and assistance in
flood control in the inferior catchment.
Such structures are responsive, depend-
ing on these parameters, to variations in
geotechnical and hydrological parame-
ters through the intact rock properties,
discontinuities features, location, slopes
of land, type of soil, rainfall and land
cover.
Bandawaya village is about 40 km
northwest city of Mosul, beside the vil-
lage a permanently flowing stream, the
stream formed from Duhok mountain
in the north passing the village and later
pouring in Mosul dam reservoir, as
shown in Figure 1. The good amount of
water flowing in the stream is from run-
off in the rainy season and/or from springs
in even dry season (summer), as shown
in Figure 2A. At the middle length of this
stream the cross-section of the valley is
contracted at the plunges of Alquosh and
Dahkan anticlines. This contraction is
the study area, and looks a good place
for dam construction from the first view.
Geomorphologically, the region of
the meandering stream valley generally
extends from north to south. The high of
the west bank is approximately 120 m,
and the east bank is approximately 80 m
(Fig. 2B).
The topographical, hydrological, and
geological parameters should be well
given in the advancement of site selec-
tion for the performance of the dam safe-
ty guarantee. The seven sections of the
Scientific Review – Engineering and Environmental Sciences (2020), 29 (3), 319–331
Sci. Rev. Eng. Env. Sci. (2020), 29 (3)
Przegląd Naukowy – Inżynieria i Kształtowanie Środowiska (2020), 29 (3), 319–331
Prz. Nauk. Inż. Kszt. Środ. (2020), 29 (3)
http://iks.pn.sggw.pl
DOI 10.22630/PNIKS.2020.29.3.27
Azealdeen Salih Al-JAWADI, Yousra Taha ABDUL BAQI,
Ali Mohammed SULAIMAN
Mosul University, Dams and Water Resources Research Center
Qualifying the geotechnical and hydrological characteristic
of the Bandawaya stream valley – Northern Iraq
320 A.S. Al-Jawadi, Y.T. Abdul Baqi, A.M. Sulaiman
code of practice will be applied to the
qualification of the site (BS 5930, 2009).
These sections include primary factors,
ground studies, field observations, la-
boratory experiments, soil and rock de-
scriptions, reports, and interpretations
(BS 5930, 2009). Khan (1992) explained
that small barriers are built over exist-
ing rivers for the processing and storage
of the rivers from the catchment. In the
1992 environmental restoration of de-
grade areas, the 13.5-meter high earthen
dam installed in the undulating region of
the Relmajra village – the Nawashahar
District was studied, with a potential for
introducing a region of approximately
25 ha of additional irrigation to that dam
(Samra, Bansal, Sikka, Mittal & Agniho-
tri, 1995).
The objective of this study is to
qualify and evaluate the geotechnical
and hydrological characteristics of the
Bandawaya stream valley, since wa-
ter behind this dam can be restricted
and used in agriculture and energy pro-
duction. Furthermore, aimed to con-
serve the excellent water quality and
good quantity in this valley and not allo-
FIGURE 1. The location of the study area with the stream spilling in Mosul dam reservoir
FIGURE 2. Bandawaya stream valley: A – water quantity in the summer season (photo by Azealdeen
Al-Jawadi, 03.08.2018); B – view of proposed site dam
West bank
East bank
Pila Spi
Formation
Undiffereniated
Fat’ha Formation
Injana
Formation
A B
214/15
Qualifying the geotechnical and hydrological characteristic of the Bandawaya... 321
wed it to spill into Mosul dam reservoir,
the access to the goal is constructing a
dam in the gorge of Bandawaya.
Geological setting
The study area is the gorge of Banda-
waya in a stream valley between the two
plunges; western Alquosh anticline and
eastern Dahkan anticline (Fig. 3). Single
plunge anticlines are both Alquosh and
Dahkan. For Pila Spi Formation (Middle-
-Upper Eocene), the lithology of limesto-
ne, dolomitic limestone, or dolomite is
dominant for the stream valley and some-
times for the formations Fat’ha (Middle
Miocene) and Injana (Upper Miocene),
marl, sandstone, and claystone (Jassim
& Goff, 2006). Slope deposits are mild-
ly cemented; rock fragments, sand, and
silt, surround both anticlines and create
deposits in the valley (Fig. 3). Structur-
ally, a horizontal bed plane parallel to the
mainstream valley trend represents the
bedding strike, and beds dipping from
10 to 15° to the east bank (Fig. 2). Tec-
tonically, the study area is located in the
Mosul High of Chemchemal – Butmah
sub-zone within the Low Folded Zone
that comprises of a wide, low amplitude,
gentle folding series (Fouad, 2015). Tec-
tonically, in the Mosul High sub-zone
of Chemchemal – Butmah, in the Low
Folded Zone, the study area is comprised
of a wide, low amplitude, gentle folding
range.
Methodology
Geotechnical studies
The field geotechnical study is in-
cluding define rock type, strength, and
weathering, discontinuity attitude, per-
sistence, spacing, openness, filling ma-
terials, and ends. For the protection of
dams and the stability of the area around
the dam and reservoir, geological do-
cumentation is important (Szafarczyk,
2019). Rock types vary between lime-
stone, dolomitic limestone, dolomite,
and somewhere marly limestone. The
uniaxial compressive strength is estima-
ted by using Schmidt hammer type N,
which be better than L type to determ-
ine the strength based on weathering
grade (Basu, Celestino & Bortolucci,
2009). Weathering classifies into five ca-
tegories, from micro fresh state to com-
pletely decomposed state (ISRM, 1980;
Williamson & Kuhn, 1988; Hoek &
Bray, 2005; Basu et al., 2009; BS 5930,
2009; Cabria, 2015). Numerous weath-
ering and weathering indices have been
FIGURE 3. Geological map of the study area (Sissakian & Fouad, 2015)
322 A.S. Al-Jawadi, Y.T. Abdul Baqi, A.M. Sulaiman
developed for quantifying the conse-
quence of weathering for engineering
properties of rocks. The geotechnical in-
vestigation for discontinuities is compris-
ing discontinuity attitude that scaled by
Silva compass for bedding planes, major
two systematic sets of joints, and a ran-
dom set of joints. Persistence, spacing,
and openness are measured by scale tape
for each set of discontinuities. Due to the
importance of filling materials, they are
classified into stronger and weaker than
host rock; their types are clay, soil, rock
fragments, and calcite. Finally, the ends
of discontinuities are not visible unless
at the boundaries of outcrop that cov-
ered by soil. Consequently, geotechnical
parameters have been selected in detail
for the proposed site of the dam. These
previous parameters help the engineers
to evaluate the rock mass according to
the most of classification systems such
as Q-System, rock mass rating (RMR),
geological strength index (GSI), and
rock mass index (RMi).
Hydrological studies
The methodology proposed is based
on site selection criteria. The favorate site
for any dam is a position where a wide
valley with high walls lead to a small ca-
nyon, with stubborn walls, which leads
to a reduction of earthwork and cost. The
location is prepared through visual in-
terpretation of satellite images (LAND-
SAT 8, 2013) data. Digital elevation mo-
del (DEM) has been prepared based on
the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission
(SRTM) with 30-meter resolution data
from the United States Geological Sur-
vey (USGS). The DEM data is used for
extracting the watershed boundary. The
delineation of the watershed boundary,
catchment area, generating slope drain-
age pattern and stream ordering based
on Strahler method, etc. all were carried
out using Arc Gis Ver. 10 software. The
morphological and areal data prepared
from the Watershed Modeling System
(WMS) Ver. 7.1 software. Depending
on the data available length and height
of the proposed dam were determined.
Also area of the reservoir, the volume of
storage verse fixed interval elevation at
specific dam height was determined. The
shape of the reservoir formed upstream
the proposed dam carried out by Global
Mapper Ver. 13 software.
Results and discussion
Geotechnical results
Since the rocks in the study area
carbonate, so the strength is forecasting
high. The uniaxial compressive strength
of these rocks is ranged between 49 and
103 MPa that classified strong in ge-
neral (Hoek, Marinos & Benissi, 1998;
Marinos & Hoek, 2000). The higher
compressive strength rocks; more than
65 MPa are cited in grade fresh and slight-
ly weathered, while the others classified
as moderately to highly weathered (Tab-
le 1). There are good relations between
the strength and degree of weathering
(Basu et al., 2009). For any engineering
project, discontinuity characteristics are
an important geotechnical investigation.
Spacing and orientation are reflecting the
block size and shape. In the study area,
the block size ranges 0.5–5.25 and the
shape is regular, i.e. cubic and orthogo-
nal. These characteristics are reflecting
a good rock quality designation (RQD)
that is very good for dam sites; it is fore-
Qualifying the geotechnical and hydrological characteristic of the Bandawaya... 323
cast permeability and shear strength (Ra-
stegarnia et al., 2019). Values of RQD
are calculated from the volumetric joints
count (Jv) values (Palmstrom, 1982).
Using of modified blockiness evaluation
method shows that rock mass is classi-
fied as slight-blockiness (Chen, Yin &
Niu, 2018). The mainly worldwide clas-
sification systems used are Q-System,
RMR, GSI, and RMi, which are pub-
lished by Barton, Lien and Lunde (1974),
Bieniawski (1989), Palmstrom (1995),
and Marinos and Hoek (2000). All these
systems estimate the rock mass quality
quantitatively and estimate the sufficient
support of rock mass (Palmstrom, 2009).
For various engineering projects, rock
mass classification systems have been
used to understand the conditions and
determine the rock mass quality (Singh
& Thakur, 2019). The general classi-
fication of the site is good: Q = 35.8,
RMR = 69.3, GSI = 71.4, and RMi = 7.3
(Table 1), which means a high value of
rock mass compressive strength (σcm).
There are some zones with low thickness
classify as fair, these zones can be treat
before construction. According to repre-
sentative elementary volume (REV), the
consequence of these small zones to the
rock mass characteristics is neglected as
the scale of the dam site (Xia, Zheng &
Yu, 2016; Wang, 2017). However, the
presence of this weak zone and its thick-
ness, which does not exceed 10 cm, may
affect the upper rock beds and reduce
their strength, as illustrated in Figure 4.
Therefore, it is recommended to treat
such beds with real treatment before
starting any construction work because
their impact extends to several meters as
shown in zone B in Figure 4. For the Da-
niel-Johnson dam in Canada, the structu-
ral faults, particularly joints, of the rock
mass, needed severe attention during the
construction of the dam. These surveys
used to determine the classification of
rock masses to allow the evaluation of
the quality of rock mass and the measure-
ment of joint openings. When an RMR
TABLE 1. Geotechnical characteristics of the dam site
Bed Lithology Thickness
[cm]
Degree of
weath-
ering*
Unit
weight
[kN·m–3]
Estima-
ted UCS**
[MPa]
Rock mass classification
Q RMR GSI RMi
1 Dol. Lst. 120 III 22.87 56.8 38 73 68 7
2 Dol. Lst. 60 III 23.03 61.7 38 75 69 6
3 Dol. Lst. 40 III 23.41 67.5 39 75 71 7
4 Dol. Lst. 60 II 23.24 77.9 40 75 71 7
5 Dol. Lst. 60 IV 22.53 52.4 34 68 65 8
6 Dol. Lst. 40 IV 22.33 58.0 34 67 62 7
7 Dol. Lst. 40 IV 22.34 58.2 34 68 60 6
8 Dol. Lst. 80 II 22.27 65.3 38 66 62 7
9 Dol. Lst. 70 II 22.26 67.5 38 63 68 8
10 Mar. Lst. 10 III 22.12 50.3 34 62 67 0.8
11 Dol. Lst. 100 IV 23.01 63.5 36 65 70 8
12 Dol. Lst. 100 III 22.89 65.1 35 63 73 9
324 A.S. Al-Jawadi, Y.T. Abdul Baqi, A.M. Sulaiman
assessment of the rock mass classific-
ation is used, it is possible to suggest
certain values for the deformation mod-
ule of the rock mass (Quirion, 2015).
Therefore, good rock mass refers to safe
dams.
Hydrological results
For satellite images of the study area
a catchment area was used of the pro-
posed dam from the SRTM DEM and the
area of interest (AOI). DEM, drainage
pattern, satellite image maps of the stu-
dy shown in Figures 5, 6 and 7. Impor-
tant linear and arial parameters and fea-
tures such as basin area, perimeter,
basin length, shape factor, sinuosity
factor, etc. have been calculated. The
drainage patterns of the watershed are
dendritic with fourth-order streams. The
details of various morphometric parame-
ters in this study are shown in Table 2.
With fourth-order flow stream, the water
drainage patterns are dendritic. Table 2
displays the descriptions of the different
morphometric parameters for this study.
The maximum and minimum eleva-
tion in the watershed 1,336; 431 m a.s.l.,
respectively, and the watershed covers
115.64 km2. Depending on the site to-
pography and dam height, the accessible
TABLE 1 cont.
Bed Lithology Thickness
[cm]
Degree of
weath-
ering*
Unit
weight
[kN·m–3]
Estima-
ted UCS**
[MPa]
Rock mass classification
Q RMR GSI RMi
13 Dol. Lst. 60 III 22.76 60.2 38 62 78 8
14 Dol. Lst. 100 I 23.74 71.7 41 70 79 8
15 Dol. Lst. 100 I 23.43 76.1 41 71 82 10
16 Dol. Lst. 60 I 23.91 70.2 40 68 79 7
17 Bre. Lst. 70 IV 21.32 48.7 22 55 54 0.8
18 Dol. Lst. 1 000 II 22.01 68.6 38 66 72 7
19 Dol. Lst. 70 III 22.74 62.8 34 65 73 8
20 Dol. Lst. 70 IV 22.32 62.7 36 65 69 6
21 Dol. Lst. 70 III 22.96 62.9 36 65 63 6
22 Dol. Lst. 70 III 22.31 62.7 36 63 60 5
23 Dol. 200 I 23.89 103.1 43 82 87 15
24 Dol. Lst. 170 I 22.95 72.5 40 81 83 11
25 Dol. Lst. 100 I 22.73 69.7 40 80 81 6
26 Dol. 200 I 23.67 98.6 40 85 83 12
27 Dol. 200 I 23.77 74.7 39 79 81 9
28 Mar. Lst. 150 IV 22.81 58.7 36 64 68 6
Total thickness 3 470 mean 22.84 66.7 35.8 69.3 71.4 7.3
*Classification according to ISRM (1980), Williamson and Kuhn (1988), Hoek and Bray (2005), Basu
et al. (2009), BS 5930 (2009), Cabria (2015).
**Estimated from the Schmidt hammer type N.
Qualifying the geotechnical and hydrological characteristic of the Bandawaya... 325
storage capacity of a reservoir depends.
At that specific location and the cross-
-section of the valley, three scenarios
were assumed to the dam height 450,
460, 470 m a.s.l., the length of the dam,
area of the reservoir upstream the dam,
volume of storage at each height are de-
fined as shown in Table 3. These para-
meters (storage capacity, water spread
area at different elevations) are used to
generate indexes based on the primary
parameters combination. The ratio be-
tween the average storage volume (mean
V) and the mean surface area (mean A)
at the specific elevation is calculated to
determine the index (mean d) of the eva-
poration losses, (0.0104, 0.0107, 0.0089)
are the index (mean d) at each elevation.
The form of the reservoir, of course,
will affect the amount of water lost
during the evaporation progression.
A narrow and deep reservoir would have
slightly less loss of evaporation than
a shallow reservoir abroad. The surface
area of water and water depth are the
major factors associated with the evapo-
ration process. The metrological factors,
however, are “e.g. Relative humidity,
precipitation density, wind speed and
temperature” are mostly the same and
have a minor impact. Therefore, in the
FIGURE 4. Rock mass classification of the pro-
posed dam site
FIGURE 5. The DEM of the study area
326 A.S. Al-Jawadi, Y.T. Abdul Baqi, A.M. Sulaiman
FIGURE 6. The drainage pattern with stream order of study area
FIGURE 7. The satellite image with the drainage pattern of the study area
TABLE 2. The morphometric and areal characteristics for the proposed dam watershed
Parameter Value Parameter Value
Basin area 113.64 km2Mean basin elevation 743.18 m
Basin slope 0.1813 Max flow distance 25 027 m
Basin lengths 18 164 m Max stream length 23 910 m
Perimeter 78 231 m Max stream slope 0.021 m·m–1
Shape factor 2.9 Distance from centroid to stream 59.0 m
Sinuosity factor 1.32 Centroid stream distance 12 243 m
Qualifying the geotechnical and hydrological characteristic of the Bandawaya... 327
assessment of the current study, the area
of water surface and the depth of water
were regarded. The shape of the reservoir
formed upstream of the dam at elevation
470 is shown in Figure 8. The important
factor affecting the construction of a dam
is cost construction, so the earthwork de-
pends on the cross-section and length of
the dam, the least length is the best. The
length of the proposed dam as measured
from contour data is 66, 190, 373 m re-
spectively, the surface area and length of
the reservoir also calculated as shown in
Table 4.
The important factor affecting the
construction of a dam is cost construc-
tion, so the earthwork depends on the
cross-section and length of the dam, the
least length is the best. The length of the
proposed dam as measured from contour
data is 66, 190, 373 m respectively, the
surface area and length of the reservoir
also calculated as shown in Table 4.
An important aspect of any hydro-
logical study is the definition of the
curve of storage capacity with levels. The
storage capacity at dam elevation 450,
460, 470 m is 640,764.41; 3,429,787.74;
FIGURE 8. The shape of the reservoir formed upstream the proposed dam 470 m with cross section
TABLE 3. The storage capacity at elevation 450, 460, 470 m a.s.l. for the dam watershed
No Dam elevation 450 m a.s.l Dam elevation 460 m a.s.l. Dam elevation 470 m a.s.l.
elevation storage elevation storage elevation storage
1 438.50 0 435.50 0 435.50 0
2 439.65 54 121.75 437.95 58 750.58 438.95 100 766.15
3 440.80 86 879.65 440.40 179 456.32 442.40 319 745.59
4 441.95 126 046.7 442.85 357 488.39 44585 638 066.92
5 443.10 179 456.32 445.30 578 248.15 449.30 1 043 980.03
6 444.25 236 782.65 447.75 856 334.23 452.75 1 564 901.85
7 445.40 306 927.28 450.20 1 162 905.45 456.20 2 322 428.28
8 464.55 395 587.25 452.65 1 545 674.39 459.65 3 315 135.07
9 447.70 487 095.73 455.10 2 053 955.94 463.10 4 597 678.06
10 448.85 585 369.43 457.55 2 682 409.13 466.55 6 358 281.65
11 450.00 640 764.41 460.00 3 429 787.74 470.00 8 590 763.41
328 A.S. Al-Jawadi, Y.T. Abdul Baqi, A.M. Sulaiman
TABLE 4. Length of the dam and reservoir with the storage according to the area of the reservoir at
different heights
No Elevation
[m a.s.l.]
Area of reservoir
[km2]
Volume of storage
[m3]
Dam length
[m]
Length of
reservoir [km]
1 450 123.6 1 286 007 66 9 09.5
2 460 319.8 3 429 788 190 1 150
3 470 962.9 8 590 763 373 2 750
4 480 1 890 573.6 – 469 3 238
5 490 3 293 661.4 – 541 4 856
430
435
440
445
450
455
460
465
470
0 5000000 10000000
Elevation [m a.s.l.]
Storage [m3]
430
435
440
445
450
455
460
0 1000000 2000000 3000000 4000000
Elevation [m a.s.l.]
Storage [m3]
430
435
440
445
450
0 400000 800000 1200000 1600000
Elevation [m a.s.l.]
Storage [m3]
FIGURE 9. Storage at elevations 470, 460, and 450 m a.s.l. respectively
Qualifying the geotechnical and hydrological characteristic of the Bandawaya... 329
8,590,763.41 m3 respectively, the plotted
curves shown in Figure 9. Table 2 shows
the storage at equal intervals for each
height.
Conclusions
The proposed dam site is good geo-
technically according to the categories
of rock mass classification. The stream
valley is narrow, meandering with the
two significant joints, resulting in high
dam stability and low construction costs.
The lithology consists of limestone, do-
lomite, dolomitic limestone, and some-
where marly limestone, with no karstic
or caves indication, nevertheless some
pores not exceed 5 cm in diameter. For
the proposed heights, the basement and
the shoulders of the dam are appropri-
ate with a high value of σcm. Because
of its excellent spacing, close openness
and presence of marl and calcite as fill-
ing materials between adjacent walls, the
water is being little filtrated from the re-
servoir following the discontinuity fea-
tures. Finally, the suggested dam site is
very significant concerning hydrological
and geotechnical characteristics.
According to its distinct enginee-
ring requirements, the hydraulic study
has shown that the proposed position of
the dam is very good. The site is distin-
guished by its narrow valley, its cliffs and
rock hardy heights and the abundance of
water that flows all seasons. The site has
an important characteristic.The availab-
ility of suitable geotechnical and hydrau-
lic resources is one of the difficulties that
engineers face in selecting the dam sites,
but the current situation is characterized
by both.
Acknowledgements
Authors of this paper would like to
express gratitude to the University of
Mosul, Mosul, Iraq for support to com-
plete this work. For much fruitful coop-
eration on laboratory tests, we thank our
colleagues in the Dams and Water Re-
sources Research Center.
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Summary
Qualifying the geotechnical and hy-
drological characteristic of the Bandawaya
stream valley – Northern Iraq. In northern
Iraq, countless non-abuse stream valleys can
be used to store water for a variety of pur-
poses; domestic, supplementary irrigation,
and recharging groundwater. Bandawaya
is one of the stream valleys, which form
the first perspective has excellent quality.
The location of the suggested dam has been
evaluated by hydrological and geotechnical
Qualifying the geotechnical and hydrological characteristic of the Bandawaya... 331
studies. Geotechnical studies included mea-
surement of all the parameters related to the
rock mass classification for evaluation based
on four classification systems, which are the
Q-System, the rock mass rating (RMR), the
geological strength index (GSI), and the rock
mass index (RMi). The classification results
indicated that the rocks of the valley are
good for constructing a dam on them, with
some weak zones that may affect the integri-
ty of the dam, which the study recommended
treating before starting the construction of
the dam. According to preliminary studies
on different dam’s heights the qualification
demonstrates an excellent choice of the site.
Four stream orders are recognized, dendri-
tic pattern in the southern part of the water-
shed, and trellised in the northern part. Three
heights assumed to the proposed dam 450,
460, 470 m a.s.l. with 640,764; 3429,787;
8,590,763 m3 storage capacity respectively.
According to the Q-System, the RMR, the
GSI, and the RMi, the rock mass of the study
area is evaluated. The findings illustrate the
excellent selection by geotechnical, hydro-
logical, and engineering features of the dam
place.
Authors’ address:
Azealdeen Salih Al-Jawadi
(https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0184-1034)
Mosul University
Dams and Water Resources Research Center
Aljamea Street, 16, 00964, Mosul
Iraq
e-mail: azealdeenaljawadi@uomosul.edu.iq
Yousra Taha Abdul Baqi
(https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0195-9865)
Dams and Water Resources Research Center
– Mosul University – Iraq
Aljamea Street, 16, 00964, Mosul
Iraq
e-mail: yousrataha2017@uomosul.edu.iq
Ali Mohammed Sulaiman
(https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7424-8514)
Dams and Water Resources Research Center
– Mosul University – Iraq
Aljamea Street, 16, 00964, Mosul
Iraq
e-mail: ali_msh2@uomosul.edu.iq
