Traditional holy cities, such as Karbala in Iraq, suffer from various challenges, namely socio-demographic transformations. This paper studies three important aspects. First, it investigates land use ...in the holy city of Karbala for religious, commercial and residential purposes. Secondly, it explores the different methods and materials that can be used to study this. Thirdly, it focuses on the symbolic aspect of the holy city of Karbala, the development of its historic city sectors and its demographic transformation. The paper concludes that the demographic changes are clearly related to political fluctuations in Iraq and the Middle East in general. Relocation and immigration to the city are the outcome of the recent events of violence in the country. This increase in population is directly affecting the standard of services in this city.
This paper focuses on the dramatic transformation of the inherited historical urban and architectural characteristics of the city of Al-Najaf in Iraq, seeking new ways of seeing the possibilities of ...preserving and revitalizing the historical center of the city.
In addition to being one of the most sacred centers for Shia Muslims, Al-Najaf has a rich cultural and architectural heritage. Its architectural characteristics and urban structure not only reflect the history of the city but also stand as evidence of the most important junctures in Islamic history: the martyrdom of Imam Ali ibn Abi Talib, who is a central Islamic spiritual personality and the second most important figure after the Prophet Muhammad. Since its establishment in 750 AD, the formation of Al-Najaf has never separated from its sociopolitical context and Islamic principles, particularly Shia Muslims’ beliefs.
Today, the city is a destination for more than million Shia Muslim pilgrims each year, and the number is rapidly increasing. However, as the city continues to develop, its architecture and unique urban structure transform dramatically. The cultural and architectural heritage of the city is seriously threatened. Several factors played a crucial role in the formation and the transformation of the city's specific architectural and urban structures. The most influential factors were mainly related to religion, environment, and politics. This paper introduces the main forces behind the transformation of the deep organizational structures of the architecture and urban fabric in Al-Najaf. The question of whether it is still possible to protect and preserve the remaining parts and revitalize the Old City center is also examined. The goal is to identify the major preservation issues and provide possible insights based on successful preservation experiences that address similar issues in different contexts.
Karbala is one of the metropolitan cities in Iraq, its historic and religious centre has a long history, yet many of its buildings are under threat because of unclear conservation management due to ...urban transformation. The history of religious rituals and processions reflects an array of values, concepts and planning philosophy that has used the power of religion and holiness of the city as a source of homogeneity and integration. By looking at the mass-pilgrimage spatial practices to the Holy Shrines in Karbala city centre and the adaptation by its residents of their domestic neighbourhoods, this paper analyses the spatial conditions of the city and offers insights into a set of factors that have shaped its historical evolution and urban spaces. The paper is in three parts; first, it discusses the causes of the urban transformation in this holy city. Secondly, it documents a set of everyday practices and problems in Karbala city, focusing on the urban level (the traditional fabric), following the analytical method of the historic evolution of Karbala as a religious centre as well as the incompatibility of the modern development with the centre’s historical heritage. Thirdly, it analyses the transformation of the urban structure by discussing the characteristics of the historical centre and the role of legislation in urban transformation of traditional city centres.
The issues associated with the urban identity of cities are particularly important in the context of historic holy cities, where the social and cultural changes of modernity have profound impacts on ...the urban transformation of traditional urban fabric and structure. This paper investigates trends of architectural design in the city of Karbala, one of the most important sacramental cities in Iraq as a site of two holy shrines (among other sites) for Shia Muslims. It first highlights urban identity in general and the urban identity in holy cities in particular, focusing on special characteristics of urban identity formation. Secondly, it explains the selection of the city of Karbala as a case study, due to its regional, social and historical role for Shias around the world. This study undertook original research by administering a questionnaire among local architects in Karbala, focused on the relationship between the architect as a designer and many concepts affecting the urban identity of the holy city. The methodology used to analyse the validity and consistency of the questionnaire was the Likert method. The research concludes that there is a weakness in the designer communication with the urban heritage of the holy city of Karbala in particular, and with Iraqi culture in general. Also, designers believe that the legacy is unable to fulfil contemporary requirements, as the process of communication between past and present is limited by only copying the elements and architectural forms from the past.
This study intends to evaluate university students' awareness regarding water pollution in Iraq to show the environmental education contribution in reducing water pollution. The study was conducted ...in Wasit university, Wasit province, Iraq by field questionnaire survey with 388 students from the civil engineering department and engineering college. The questionnaires were divided according to the pollution causes into industrial, agricultural and sewage water pollutants. The data were analyzed utilizing the thematic analysis to assess environmental knowledge and awareness of water pollution risks. The results show that most students have high interest in environmental conservation, yet, a lack of education in general environmental education, as the educational curriculum focuses on theoretical aspects more than the practical ones. The results also show that the media role is inactive concerning environmental awareness of water pollution. This study provides a scientific view of policymakers for potential future conditions to find solutions that achieve sustainability goals.
The historic centre of the Iraqi city of Al-Najaf embraces a seasonal pilgrimage to its holy sites that forces unusual urban conditions. This paper examines the impact of development projects and ...studies on the heritage integrity of the public (religious). This paper, therefore, recommends raising public awareness to adopt design approaches to face the overflow of visitors and the loss of heritage identity.
Abstract The hot, dry environmental conditions prevailing in Al-Najaf and Yazd cities - a modern old problem-must be studied with some detail to come up with new solutions to adapt to the current ...environmental conditions of the two cities. the research aims to compare the methods used by the residents of Al-Najaf and Yazd cities to handle the hard-environmental conditions in the past and the way to adapt to them. Eight criteria were compared and discussed to investigate the ways and methods to improve the environmental situation in the two cities. The research concluded that there is a great similarity in the environment of the two cities, as well as the environment responding to the treatments that human life adapts. This necessitates the need to preserve the environmental design vocabulary for these two cities (Yazd and Najaf) such as the central courtyard of the aligned residential units to soften the atmosphere within the one unit and increase the family bonding.in addition to preserving the side Shanasheel and local privacy. Yazd city overpass Al-Najaf city by maintaining climate treatments for the historical centre and developing them in line with the development of building methods and construction materials.
Abstract
This paper investigates the autoregressive (AR) model performance in prediction and forecasting the monthly maximum temperature. The temperature recordings are collected over 12 years (i.e., ...144 monthly readings). All the data are stationaries, which is converted to be stationary, via obtaining the normal logarithm values. The recordings are then divided into 70% training and 30% testing sample. The training sample is used for determining the structure of the AR model while the testing sample is used for validating the obtained model in forecasting performance. A wide range of model order is selected and the most suitable order is selected in terms of the highest modelling accuracy. The study shows that the monthly maximum temperature can accurately be predicted and forecasted using the AR model.
Abstract
In the current study, a moving forecasting model is used for the purpose of forecasting maximum air temperature. A number of recordings are used for building the AR model and next, to ...forecasting some temperature values ahead. Then the AR model coefficients are updating due to shifting the training sample by adding new temperature values in order to involve the change in temperature time series behaviour. The current work shows a high performance all over the temperature time series, which considered in the analysis.
Abstract
In this research, the singular spectrum analysis technique is combined with a linear autoregressive model for the purpose of prediction and forecasting of monthly maximum air temperature. ...The temperature time series is decomposed into three components and the trend component is subjected for modelling. The performance of modelling for both prediction and forecasting is evaluated via various model fitness function. The results show that the current method presents an excellent performance in expecting the maximum air temperature in future based on previous recordings.
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