Tigris–Euphrates river system through the central plain and combine at Al-Qurnah to form the Shatt al-Arab and discharge into the Persian Gulf. The region has historical importance as part of the Fertile Crescent region, in which civilization is believed to have first emerged. The ecoregion is characterized by two large rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates. The rivers have several small tributaries which feed into the system from shallow freshwater lakes, swamps, and marshes, all surrounded by desert. The hydrology of these vast marshes is extremely important to the ecology of the entire upper Persian Gulf. Historically, the area is known as Mesopotamia. As
Integrated Water Flow Model (IWFM) Integrated Water Flow Model (IWFM) Integrated Water Flow Model (IWFM) is a computer program for simulating water flow through the integrated land surface, surface water and groundwater flow systems. It is a rewrite of the abandoned software IGSM, which was found to have several programing errors. The IWFM programs and source code are freely available. IWFM is written in Fortran, and can be compiled and run on Microsoft Windows, Linux and Unix operating systems. The IWFM source code is released under the GNU General Public License. Groundwater flow is simulated using the finite element method. Surface water flow can be