Zeynab Hosseinpour; Mahdi Radfar; Rasoul Mirabbasi
Abstract
One of the resources that have been severely affected by drought is groundwater, however it has been considered less than other water resources. Due to the recent droughts especially in the central regions of Iran, investigating the impact of droughts on water resources is very important. The main aims ...
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One of the resources that have been severely affected by drought is groundwater, however it has been considered less than other water resources. Due to the recent droughts especially in the central regions of Iran, investigating the impact of droughts on water resources is very important. The main aims of this study are characterization of meteorological and hydrogeological droughts, assessment the effects of drought on groundwater level fluctuations and determining the critical regions of Shahrekord Plain Aquifer. For this purpose, modified Standardized Precipitation Index (SPImod) and Groundwater Resource Index (GRI) were used to assess meteorological and groundwater droughts, respectively. Also, the cross-correlation test was used to investigate the relationship between the meteorological drought and the groundwater drought. In this research, the monthly precipitation data of Shahrekord synoptic station and monthly groundwater level data of 35 piezometers in this plain in the period of 1984-2015 were used. Based on the result of GRI index, Shahrekord Aquifer was divided into three regions which cover the north and northwest, central and south-east and southwest. The results of correlation between modified SPI in various time scales of 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 18, 24 and 48 months and GRI index indicates the highest correlation between 18-month modified SPI and GRI. The results also showed that the effect of meteorological drought on GRI index appears with 6 and 18-month delay on northern and central areas, respectively, and without delay on the South West of the Shahrekord Aquifer.
Gholamreza Chamanpira; Gholamreza Zehtabian; Hasan Ahmadi; Arash Malekian
Abstract
Drought is the most hazardous natural phenomenon. Although not preventable, its negative effects can be reduced through taking some measures. One of the systems severely affected by drought while less considered is the groundwater. In this study, drought status and its impact on groundwater resources ...
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Drought is the most hazardous natural phenomenon. Although not preventable, its negative effects can be reduced through taking some measures. One of the systems severely affected by drought while less considered is the groundwater. In this study, drought status and its impact on groundwater resources was investigated in Alashtar Plain using Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI) at monthly, quarterly, and annual scales and the Groundwater Resource Index (GRI) during the statistical period of 1991-2010. After data collection, statistical errors were corrected by subtraction and ratios method. Then, to determine the status, SPI and GRI were calculated with DIP software on an annual, seasonal, and three, six, nine, 12, 18, 24, and 48-month time scales for Alashtar Plain. Then, according to SPI and GRI value, the moisture status were determined for each period. Results indicated that the trend of plain meteorological and groundwater drought is negative. Correlation between SPI at different time scales with and without the time delay and with average groundwater level and GRI was analyzed. Statistical analysis showed that SPI was significant at the level of 0.01, in the 24-month time scale without any time delay with mean groundwater level and GRI and had the highest correlation coefficient, suggesting the impact of drought on Alashtar plain groundwater. Regression relation between the mean level of the water table and SPI_24 showed that 64.4% of the variance at the mean level of water table was affected by SPI_24 and 35.6% was affected by other factors. Drought magnitude (DM) analysis showed that meteorological and groundwater droughts are consistent with winter and autumn, respectively. Undoubtedly, optimized utilization management, especially in spring and summer, may have a critical impact on preventing damages to the groundwater resources of the region.