Assistant Lecturer Wisam Saad Hassan Al-Khattabi, staffmember in the Department of Applied Geography at the College of Education for the Humanities, University of Kerbala, has earned his PhD in Human Geography, specialising in Transportation Geography from the College of Education IbnRushd, University of Baghdad. His dissertation is entitled:
“Geographical Analysis of the Demographic Characteristics of Pilgrims and Their Impact on Transportation in Karbala Province.”
The dissertation aims to analyse the demographic characteristics of pilgrims visiting the holy city of Karbala during 2022 through a comprehensive field study. It proposed an effective action plan to address transportation challenges, improve and develop tourism-related services, identify the most congested access routes into the city, and offer solutions to alleviate issues faced by pilgrims at key entry points leading to the holy shrines.
Furthermore, the study is structured into four chapters: Chapter One explores the tourism attraction factors and demographic traits of the pilgrims, Chapter Two focuses on the transportation system, its development, and traffic patterns in Karbala, Chapter Three presents a statistical analysis of the impact of pilgrim movement on transportation routes and directions, and Chapter Four proposesstrategies to overcome the difficulties encountered by pilgrims upon entering and exiting the province.
The findings indicated a gradual and consistent increase in the number of pilgrims during the period from 2017 to 2022, except for 2020, which saw a decline due to the COVID-19 pandemic and associated health restrictions. Pilgrims accounted for 15.42% in 2017, rising to 21.26% in 2022, marking an increase of 5.84% over the study period.
Additionally, the study reveals that private transport dominates traffic in Karbala, with minimal reliance on public transportation, leading to increased transportation challenges, especially in daily commuting between the city centre and surrounding administrative districts.
