العلاقات المكانية بين طرق النقل الريفية والمحاصيل الاستراتيجية في محافظة بابل

Abstract

The present paper aims to uncover the nature of the spatial relationships between rural roads and the areas cultivated with strategic crops in the rural areas of the administrative units within the study region. It also seeks to determine the trend in strategic crop production during the study period, and to clarify the nature of the relationship between rural roads and cultivated areas, including the slope of these relationships and the coefficient of interpretation. The total number of rural roads is 544, with the highest number (75) in the center of Al-Hillah District and the lowest (8) in the center of Al-Musayyib District. The areas of land cultivated with strategic crops (wheat, barley, and corn) varied. The highest area during the study period (2014-2022) was recorded for wheat (2,301,056 dunams), and the lowest for barley (363,970 dunams). The trend of change for all crops was decreasing, with annual rates of -2.47%, -0.64%, and -0.56% for barley, corn, and wheat, respectively. The study concluded that… by applying Pearson’s correlation, the strongest positive relationships for the study variables were recorded for the wheat crop with a correlation of (0.03) during the agricultural season (2019-2020), and (0.13) during (2018-2019) for the barley crop, and (0.42) for the corn crop in the year (2021-2022)).