Model for Hazard Mapping and Disaster Management of Land Degradation Using Geospatial Techniques in Iraq: A Review

In this review article, we examined the previous literature on mapping and modeling degradation risk in the spatiotemporal context of Iraq, which is located in the Near East and North Africa (NENA) region, and is particularly vulnerable to land degradation and is losing thousands of hectares of land. Land degradation has been a significant focus of academic research globally and remains a major issue in the 21st Century. The review process is meticulously designed and conducted over the past decade (from 2015 to 2025) utilizing relevant keywords. We searched several databases including Elsevier, Springer, IEEE, MDPI, Taylor and Francis, and Wiley. Our search has yielded 54 relevant research articles. We conclude that there is a research gap that needs to be addressed represented by: the development of a model that considers the spatiotemporal aspects of land degradation in line with the definitions found in global literature. Additionally, the Dhi Qar and Ninewa Governorates have not received much attention from researchers, making them largely unexplored areas in this context. We also observed that the most widely used remote sensing data in the literature came from the Landsat satellite series.