Mohammad Ebrahim Banihabib; Mohammad Hossein Poormohamadi
Volume 2, Issue 3 , October 2010, , Pages 123-132
Abstract
When upstream water surface of an earth dam falls down rapidly and the upstream slope of the dam cannot be drained, the rapid drawdown analysis is necessary. There are several methods for rapid drawdown analysis including; Bishop, Ordinary, Janbu, Morgenstern-Price, Spencer, Lowe-Karafiath, United State ...
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When upstream water surface of an earth dam falls down rapidly and the upstream slope of the dam cannot be drained, the rapid drawdown analysis is necessary. There are several methods for rapid drawdown analysis including; Bishop, Ordinary, Janbu, Morgenstern-Price, Spencer, Lowe-Karafiath, United State Army Corps of engineers (USACE) and modified USACE. Modified USACE is presented by Lowe and Karafiath and is modified by Duncan, Wright and Wong. For simulation two models of SEEPE/W and SLOPE/W, are used. Drawdown velocity of 1, 2, 4 and 6 m/day are used in simulation. Simulations show that increasing drawdown velocity causes decreasing safety factor. Rapid drawdown analysis by Bishop, Morgenstern-Price, Spencer, Lowe-Karafiath, USACE and modified USACE give the same results for safety factor. Safety factor of rapid drawdown analysis will decrease 26% compared to steady state analysis on the average.
Hajar Malakouti; Alireza Shokoohi; Hasan Zolfagharzadeh
Abstract
This study aims to determine the design strategy of a nuclear power plant near the river by assessing flood risk as a design precondition and the Darkhovin Nuclear Site near the Karoun River in Khuzestan Province was considered as a case study. In this study, by sampling the probabilistic space fitted ...
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This study aims to determine the design strategy of a nuclear power plant near the river by assessing flood risk as a design precondition and the Darkhovin Nuclear Site near the Karoun River in Khuzestan Province was considered as a case study. In this study, by sampling the probabilistic space fitted to the flow rate and by filtering and removing flood flows that does not overflow from the river to the flood plain, the two-dimensional HEC-RAS hydraulic model was used to determine the depth and flow velocity within the power plant site. Frequency analysis of flood depth simulated by the model for different discharges showed that the frequency distribution of flow depth and the generating flood are different from each other. The safe design of a power plant site requires consideration of the many uncertainties that make it difficult to use conventional methods. In this research, for the first time, the Rosenbluet technique was used to evaluate the uncertainty and finally to determine the maximum possible water level for locating the reactor core. The results show that to create the maximum probable depth with a return period of 100 years, there should be a flood with a return period of 10,000 years in Karoun downstream of Ahvaz. The method presented in this research can be the basis of a standard for the safe design of nuclear power plants in the vicinity of rivers considering flood hazards.
Mojtaba Rezaei; Mehdi Vafakhah; Bagher Ghermezcheshmeh
Abstract
Flood is a sudden happening and quick and destructive event that causes death and financial sensible and unsensiable damages in different parts on the world and Iran annually. Control or decreasing these destructive impositions needs precise and accurate studies. So, recognition of the places with runoff ...
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Flood is a sudden happening and quick and destructive event that causes death and financial sensible and unsensiable damages in different parts on the world and Iran annually. Control or decreasing these destructive impositions needs precise and accurate studies. So, recognition of the places with runoff generation potential is very important. In current study, two major aims of investigation of the application of distributed ModClark model in flood hydrograph simulation and determination of flood source area in distributed and sub-watershed condition were investigated in the Khanmirza watershed, Chaharmahal-e-Bakhtiari Province. For this reason, at first, inputs of model were extracted by ArcGIS 9.3 and then model was calibrated and validated. In next step, in order to determine flood source area for cell units and sub-watersheds, by applying "Unit Flood Response" method, at first, design rainfall with return periods of 25, 50, and 100 years at the Aloni station were extracted and then influence of each cell and sub-watershed on output hydrograph of the outlet watershed were obtained. The results of model based on comparison between equal-width discharges show that at validation step, the model was simulated the flood hydrograph with high precision with root mean square error, efficiency coefficient, and R2 of 1.53, 0.89, and 0.74, respectively. Also, according to the results of current study, based on the flood volume relative error, peak discharge, base time, and time to peak, ModClark model had lower error in predicting the flood volume and peak discharge. The final results showed that flood source area increases in sub-watersheds from downstream to upstream, while it doesn’t follow any distribution in cell units.
Mohammad Mehdi Fattahi; Hamid Reza Javidkia
Abstract
Gully erosion is one of water erosion types that happen due to improper management of agricultural lands. The main objectives of this research are zonation and characterisation of gully erosion. For this purpose, affected areas by gully erosion were noticed in Arial photographs and satellite images. ...
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Gully erosion is one of water erosion types that happen due to improper management of agricultural lands. The main objectives of this research are zonation and characterisation of gully erosion. For this purpose, affected areas by gully erosion were noticed in Arial photographs and satellite images. Areas with more than 500 ha and their dominant climates were specified with climate map and for each climate two areas in which one representative gully and two repetition gullies were chosen. Morphology characteristics, soil sampling and other related studies were performed in each gully. Consequently, according to the main characteristics, such as climate and view plan, these gullies were classified by cluster analysis and their digitized zonation maps were provided. According to the results, six regions with a total area of 7437.3 ha were affected by gully erosion with three different types of climates, from which, three regions had moderately arid climate (Qeshlagh Alborz and Naizar) and warm semi-arid (Rahjerd)with more than 500 ha. These regions that are classified in two classes based on cluster analysis, have lateral gullies which are developed beside the natural drainages and are classified as un continuous gullies. The texture of soil surface is usually sandy-loam and in some cases loam and silty-loam and sandy-loam and silty-loam in the subsurface layer. Highly sensitive lands, flood occurrence, past heavy rainfalls and high amount of salts in some areas, are from the most morpho-climatic factors causing gully erosion in dry regions and deserts of Qom province.
Mohammad Reza Jafari; Iraj Jabbari; Haji Karimi
Abstract
There are several stream channels in Musian Plain which change surface flow regularly as well as cause great damages to the basin’s residents. In order to prevent or reduce the risk of flow regime changes, surface flow dispersion on the permeable alluvial fans is controlled by implementation of ...
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There are several stream channels in Musian Plain which change surface flow regularly as well as cause great damages to the basin’s residents. In order to prevent or reduce the risk of flow regime changes, surface flow dispersion on the permeable alluvial fans is controlled by implementation of the biological and structural practices. Therefore, in this study, two objectives are followed: first, comparison of flow regime changes of Musian Plain on the flood spreading and adjacent areas (control area), where there have been no structural and biological practices; and then, evaluation of these changes impacts in the area’s dynamics and land use. For this purpose, satellite images of Landsat 7 and 8, TM, ETM, and ETM+ sensors in 1998, 2002 and 2014 were used. The relationships between morphological parameters in the control and spreading areas, before and after flood spreading were obtained. Then, the effects of flow regime changes, as well as, land use dynamics were assessed. Results showed that the structural and biological practices are the main factors which change the flow patterns in the study area. The relationships between morphological parameters before and after practices showed the changes of drainage density index from 1.5 to 1.09 (km/km2), as well as the bifurcation ratio from 3.11 to 11.45; respectively. It indicates the stable flow regime in flood spreading practices rather than the control area. Controling and reducing the vlume of flood, means 9.1 MCM annual recharge , decreasing trend of average permeability in spreading areas, compare to basic permeability as much as 13.57 and 17.95 (cm.h-1), respectively,reduction of sand particle and increasing of clay and silt in flood spreading area compared to the control area, development of cultivation area up to 2410 (ha), rising of forage production by 109 (kg/ha-1), the increasing of trees and wells as much as 254181 and 62 respectively. Also, floodwater spreading affects on the pattern of flow dynamic and land use of the Musian area.
Bahram Saghafian; Bagher Ghermezcheshmeh; Masoud Samiei; Reza Asheghi
Volume 1, Issue 3 , October 2009, , Pages 140-152
Abstract
Study of effective factors on sediment load of river basins has attracted more attention in watershed management. In spite of the short record length, sediment load measured in stations can be used in such studies. In this study, 20 sub-basins with measured sediment data was identified and some 48 physiographic, ...
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Study of effective factors on sediment load of river basins has attracted more attention in watershed management. In spite of the short record length, sediment load measured in stations can be used in such studies. In this study, 20 sub-basins with measured sediment data was identified and some 48 physiographic, climatic, geologic, and vegetation index factors were extracted for the sub-basins using GIS. Surface curvature and satellite image-based vegetation indices were considered for the first time. Based on factor analysis, four factors namely total area, percent of convex area, percent area with northwest aspect and percent area with NDVI>0.4 were the main factors. Cluster analysis was applied to delineate homogeneous regions, which led to two regions. The results indicated that the factors mentioned above are the most influential factors on sediment load.
Soheyla Aghabeigi; Abdol Rasoul Telvari; Sayed Khalagh Mirnia; Sadat Feiznia; Mehdi Vafakhah
Abstract
Sediment concentration in rivers, especially in seasonal ones, is affected by flood situation due to changes of rainfall or snowmelt events. Due to the importance of flooding flows in inundation and the useful age of reservoirs built on seasonal rivers, the study and assessment of this issue seems to ...
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Sediment concentration in rivers, especially in seasonal ones, is affected by flood situation due to changes of rainfall or snowmelt events. Due to the importance of flooding flows in inundation and the useful age of reservoirs built on seasonal rivers, the study and assessment of this issue seems to be essential. In the present research, suspended sediment concentration variation in spring and autumn floods and runoff from snowmelt in spring, have been studied for Abshine River in Ekbatan Dam Watershed. Over the forecast period, three storms in autumn, two storms in spring and five snow melt events were selected and compared. Analyzing 226 suspended load samples showed its variability in the area. Sediment rating curves in different base times showed different trends. The correlation coefficient (r) were 0.79 and 0.50 for storms and snowmelts and 0.81 for all data, respectively. Also, coefficient and power value analysis of sediment rating curve, presented the same erodibility for hill slope in both seasons (spring and autumn). Separating falling and rising limbs of flow hydrograph and assessing their effect on discharge explains a better Q-sediment concentration relationship. The hysteretic shape of discharge and sediment concentration had clockwise and anticlockwise form and compound pattern of both forms that reflected the distribution of probable sediment sources throughout the catchment.
Omid Asadi Nalivan; Alireza Rabet; Farzaneh Vakili tajareh; Marziyeh Ramezani; Mohamad Momeni; Kohzad Heydari
Abstract
Extended abstractIntroductionGully erosion is a water erosion that has a great contribution to land degradation and is known as one of the most important environmental hazards in the world and especially in Iran. In recent years, machine learning techniques and geographic information systems have been ...
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Extended abstractIntroductionGully erosion is a water erosion that has a great contribution to land degradation and is known as one of the most important environmental hazards in the world and especially in Iran. In recent years, machine learning techniques and geographic information systems have been highly effective in determining areas sensitive to gully erosion and have increased accuracy and speed in the evaluation and potential of gully erosion and in determining effective factors on gully erosion has also been effective. The loess lands of Golestan Province are more susceptible to water erosion due to sufficient depth and almost uniform silty graining, excessive use, cultivation on sloping lands, and wrong land management so that all types of erosion can be observed in these areas. The most common type of erosion in these sediments is gully erosion. The studied watershed is faced with the increase of dry and abandoned land, land use change, the presence of surplus livestock in the forests, and also the population increase. Therefore, this area is facing an increase in sensitivity to gully erosion, and areas with the potential for gully erosion should be identified and managed. Materials and methodsThe studied watershed with an area of 222,000 ha and an elevation range of 58 to 2168 m is located in the northeast of Golestan Province. The average rainfall of the area is between 224 and 736 mm. In this research, first, the location of the gullies was obtained from the General Directorate of Natural Resources and Watershed Management of Golestan Province. Then, from the total of 1127 gullies position, 70% were randomly classified as training data and 30% as validation data. To determine the effective variables in gully erosion sensitivity, 14 factors were identified and in the next step, the collinearity test between the variables was performed using SPSS software. By using the indices of tolerance coefficient and variance inflation factor, if there is collinearity between the variables, they were removed from the modeling process. Considering the importance of the DEM map and its application in the preparation of various factors of the current research, a DEM was prepared using ALOS satellite images. The layers of slope and aspect are prepared by using a digital elevation model and slope and aspect functions respectively. Slope length index in SAGA GIS software, layers of distance from stream based on the map of stream, and distance from roads based on existing roads, and using the Euclidean distance function in the ArcGIS software was prepared. Stream density and road density layers were obtained based on the map of existing streams and roads in the region and using the line density function in ArcGIS. The lithology layer was extracted from the geological map of the region and the land use layer was obtained from the General Directorate of Natural Resources and Watershed Management of Golestan province. The rainfall map has been prepared using the information from 35 rain gauge stations. First, the average rainfall of 26 years was calculated for each station, and then rainfall zoning was done using the global Kriging Method (due to the lowest RMSE) in ArcGIS. The TPI layer was prepared using the DEM and using the SAGA GIS software. The HAND index is a topographic-hydrological index of the DEM of the nearest drain, representing the hydrological behavior of the watershed. To evaluate the models, the relative performance detection curve (ROC) was used for the predictive power of the models. Results and discussionThe results showed that there is no co-linearity between the variables and therefore all the variables were used in the modeling process. The relationship between gully erosion and elevation showed that lower elevations are more sensitive than higher elevations and more susceptible to gully erosion near waterways. The results showed that with the increase in drainage density, the sensitivity of gully erosion increases, and the possibility of gully erosion increases. The results showed that the old barracks, shale, and loess have the greatest impact on the sensitivity of gully erosion. The results show a decrease in the sensitivity of gully erosion with a decrease in the HAND index. This result indicates that in the areas where the level of saturation in the watershed level increases, the possibility and sensitivity of gully erosion increases. The results showed that among the types of land use, canals, poor pastures, and agricultural land use have the highest sensitivity to gully erosion. This is even though the forest areas have the lowest sensitivity to this erosion. The results showed that in the rainfall range of 220 to 420 mm, the possibility of gully erosion has increased, and the range of 420 to 500 mm has shown the highest level of sensitivity, and with the increase of rainfall from 500 mm to above, a reduction in the sensitivity of gully erosion has been encountered. One of the reasons for reducing the sensitivity of gully erosion in higher rainfalls is the increase in vegetation and the creation of suitable conditions for landslides. The results showed that the depth of the valley up to 235 meters have increased the probability of gully erosion, and from 235 meters above, it has decreased the probability of erosion. The results showed that the sensitivity of gully erosion increases near roads, and this case shows the effects of road construction and the aggravation of conditions for gully erosion. ConclusionThis research was conducted to determine the effective factors on gully erosion and zone its spatial distribution in the northeast of Golestan Province. In this study, by considering 14 important factors and using RF, ANN, and CART models, a sensitivity map of gully erosion was prepared. Because the identification of gully erosion-sensitive areas based on traditional methods and expert opinions do not have acceptable accuracy, it is necessary to use modern machine learning methods. The results showed that the factors of distance from the road and land use are the most important factors affecting the sensitivity of gully erosion, which requires land use management as human activities. The ROC curve showed that the accuracy of the models in estimating areas with gully erosion sensitivity was excellent in the test stage (ANN) and very good in the test and validation stage (RF and CART), which means the excellent performance of the models.
Ebrahim Boroshkeh; Mahmoud Arabkhedri
Abstract
Sediment yield estimation for small basins is essential in watershed management planning projects. However, almost all of these basins are ungauged. In this study, in order to determine a range for specific sediment yield and to develop a regression model for estimating annual sediment yield, sedimentation ...
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Sediment yield estimation for small basins is essential in watershed management planning projects. However, almost all of these basins are ungauged. In this study, in order to determine a range for specific sediment yield and to develop a regression model for estimating annual sediment yield, sedimentation behind small dams within 25 basins in Western Azerbaijan province, were measured. The selected basins with an area ranged 29 to 1200 ha, cover a range of lithology, land uses and climates and all of the sediments had been trapped behind the check dams. The specific sediment yields showed a two digit differences ranged 0.12 and 12 . However, the weighted average of specific sediment yield for all basins was calculated a low value of 1.3. Study of relationship between annual sediment yield and 18 characteristics of watersheds using correlation matrix showed that the sediment yield is significantly affected by geologic erodibility, basin area and land use factors. From several regression models which were developed, an equation including two independent variables, geologic erodibility and basin area, with a high determination coefficient (R2=0.899) was chosen.
Reza Bayat; Bagher Ghermez Cheshmeh; Hoseingholi Refahi
Abstract
The rate of soil erosion and sediment yield depends on different factors. Vegetation cover is more variable factor effecting occurrence of soil erosion in comparison to the other factors in a given watershed. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the role of canopy cover resulting from land ...
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The rate of soil erosion and sediment yield depends on different factors. Vegetation cover is more variable factor effecting occurrence of soil erosion in comparison to the other factors in a given watershed. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the role of canopy cover resulting from land management on sediment yield. Taleghan watershed was selected as a study area due to the availability of sufficient data. Necessary information was provided for MPSIAC model and was made in GIS environment and all needed calculations were done for preparing sediment yield map. The result of the comparison of the calculated and the estimated sediment yield indicated similarity of them (i.e. 98.3% similarity). For impact assessment of vegetation cover effect on sediment control, canopy cover was changed in a range of ±5 to 25% percent with 5% interval in both good and bad conditions. The effect of these changes was applied to bare soil percentage as well. The related thematic maps were prepared and sediment yield was determined. The result showed that sediment yield varied because of changing canopy cover. The increase and decrease of canopy cover by 25%, affected the sediment yield to change by -29.6% and 26.8% respectively.
Afshin Partovi
Volume 2, Issue 4 , January 2011, , Pages 187-196
Abstract
Remotely sensed data is now being acquired and it is hoped the earth’s surface will be imaged more and more precisely to support their information systems by accurate data with high spatial resolution. The most advantage of this technique can be mentioned to acquire earth surface data with all ...
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Remotely sensed data is now being acquired and it is hoped the earth’s surface will be imaged more and more precisely to support their information systems by accurate data with high spatial resolution. The most advantage of this technique can be mentioned to acquire earth surface data with all of its details depend on the spatial resolution of satellite imagery. Due to remote sensing applications, there are some factors with efficient effects on the accuracy of the obtained results. Such that, there is not avoidable Relief Displacement correction in DEM generation or data fusion works. A lot of researches have been done to remove Relief Displacement caused by imaged feature’s height and scanning array by different algorithms of Ortho Photo rectification. In this approach the geometry of 1A and 1B level products of ASTER images was studied to develop a method based on rotation re sampling for Epipolar Stereo Pair Model generation in Non-Photogrametric software. Then the generated model was used to digitize contour lines with 100 meters interval of constant parallax (in row-parallax on the screen, i.e. col= 0). The result of comparison shows a consistent shift in georeference of digitized contour map with respect to the existing contour map and ground control points that can be caused by the effect of side ward looking angle and height of feature. Thus, the effective parameters such as pointing angle and height of feature were applied to develop a mathematical formula in Excel software to measure amount of shifts and finally correct it. The research show the amounts of shift are varying depends on position of the points in the image and its heights. Furthermore, the developed formula enables us to remove Relief Displacement without any changes on the radiometric properties of image data.
Sina Mallah Nokandeh; Mehdi Homaee; Aliakbar Noroozi
Abstract
Soil Organic Matter (SOM) is one of the most vital components in soil solid phase and plays an important role in soil aggregation. SOM considerably improves soil physical conditions during long time. Moreover, knowing the SOM content of arid and semi-arid areas could significantly affect the soil management ...
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Soil Organic Matter (SOM) is one of the most vital components in soil solid phase and plays an important role in soil aggregation. SOM considerably improves soil physical conditions during long time. Moreover, knowing the SOM content of arid and semi-arid areas could significantly affect the soil management in such SOM-lacking regions. The objective of this research was to compare four common statistical models with the purpose of acheiving the best model for estimating the SOM in Ivanekey and test the obtained model in another semi-arid area of Urmia plain. Two Hyperion images were collected for Ivanekey and Urmia plain which were used to identify the relationship between spectral bands and SOM by applying SWR, MinR, PLSR and PCA models. Models were calibrated by Ivanekey Hyperion images and verified by nine Ivanekey and 23 Urmia random samples. Results indicated that MinR and PCA models do not have reasonable accuracy, but SWR and PLSR can provide the highest accuracy with the same RMSE value of 0.18, and R2 of 0.69 and 0.66, respectively. It is also demonstrated that there is a close relation between SOM and Red and Short Wave Infra Red spectral regions.
Reza Sokouti
Abstract
Crop growth in natural habitats is the result of the biological function of various factors. Soil is the most influential factor on the yield potential of a habitat that can lead to the soil fertility and yield degradation. This study aimed to determine the relationship between crop yield and soil properties ...
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Crop growth in natural habitats is the result of the biological function of various factors. Soil is the most influential factor on the yield potential of a habitat that can lead to the soil fertility and yield degradation. This study aimed to determine the relationship between crop yield and soil properties used to calculate the soil quality indicators in the semi-arid rangelands of Shohada-Valley as an example in West Azerbaijan Province The slope aspect with four directions, slope classes with five classes and vegetation layers were overplayed to prepare working units of 1:50,000 scale. Physical, biological and chemical properties of soil samples from 0-30 cm of topsoil were determined through required analysis. Landscape Function Analysis (LFA) was done and yield of dominant species was calculated in maximum flowering time by direct collection method. Effective soil properties on plant production were determined using Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and the mathematical relations between crop yield and soil parameters was computed by stepwise multiple regression. Results showed that mean values of soil landscape index is 0.8, stability index was equal to 76.9, the permeability index was 57.1 and the nutrient index was equal to 69.1 in 28 map units. The average of total production was calculated 1535.24 kg /ha of dry matter. Three components having a latent root above one, explained about 78 percent of the variance using factor analysis,. The outcome variables for evaluating soil quality index, organization index, nutrient cycling index, salinity and bulk density, were determined. A significant correlation of 63% was achieved between soil quality indicators and crop production,. Using soil quality index a coefficient of determination of 64 percent was computed after applying a mathematical crop production model Mean Bias Error of -0.02, error of 8% and the efficiency of the model of 0.66, provide a suitable application for interpretation function of rangelands. Therefore, resulted model is suitable for estimating range production in semi-arid and cold semi-arid steppe habitats.
Hossein Hosseini Poor; Jafar Ghaioomeyan; Ahmad Reza Ghasemi; Saeid Choopani
Volume 1, Issue 4 , February 2010, , Pages 212-226
Abstract
Hydrologists have paid attention to identify the influential factors on underground water quality to examine the source of salts. In this research, hydrochemistry and the source of underground water salts in Sarchahan plain were examined using ion ratios and the difference between densities of ions of ...
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Hydrologists have paid attention to identify the influential factors on underground water quality to examine the source of salts. In this research, hydrochemistry and the source of underground water salts in Sarchahan plain were examined using ion ratios and the difference between densities of ions of the same source. In a phase in 1998, 49 samples from the aquifer and 13 samples from the surface water of Sarchahan plain were provided. Then some ions with common mineralogy source namely twin ions were identified and the imbalance between them was considered as a sing of subsidiary factors and processes affecting Sarchahan aquifer quality. The examination of the relationship between twin ions with the help of ion differences of CL-Na and So4(ca+Mg) can provide the possibility of identifying the affected region from dissolution of compound such as Manesium in Sarchahan aquifer. Generally, the examination of ion ratios and the difference of twin ions show that the dissolution of Halite and Sulfate salts of alluvium can be the main factor of salinity of underground water in Sarchahan plain. Oppositely, Por Abedin river Causes improvement of Chemical quality of Sarchahan aquifer but Shoor River has no effect on Salinity increase of aquifer due to underground water drainage. Furthermore, natural softening processes and opposite softening affects the quality of this aquifer as well and by extending the salinity toward downstream areas the possibility of occurrence of opposite softening increases. The possibility of Dedolomitization in Sarchahan aquifer is out of question. Additionally, salt domes do not have a clear effect on salinity of underground water too.
Parviz Garshasbi; Davood Ghorbanpour
Abstract
Soil erosion is one of the critical issues in Iranian watersheds. There are fewer quantitative economic analysis of soil conservation practices effects in Iran. Economic evaluation of soil conservation activities is difficult due to the effect of combined indices and lack of market economic value. In ...
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Soil erosion is one of the critical issues in Iranian watersheds. There are fewer quantitative economic analysis of soil conservation practices effects in Iran. Economic evaluation of soil conservation activities is difficult due to the effect of combined indices and lack of market economic value. In this research, the effects of soil conservation practices are analyzed using Net Present Value (NPV) method in Mian Bishe Sub-basin of Taleghan Watershed in Alborz Province, Iran. This sub-basin was selected due to acceptable period of soil conservation practices for analysis and its technical evaluation experiences. First, basic data were updated using GIS, field survey and identification and measurement of benefit and cost indices. Then, economic value of three main cost indices and six combined benefit indices were identified and computed. Economic indices, including NPV and benefit-cost ratio were estimated by integrating available data. Evaluations show that rehabilitation of Main Bishe Sub-basin in a 30 years period with a discount rate of 15 percent has economic justification in lands with comparative productivity, including mountainous rangelands and hilly badlands with high rate of soil erosion and positive NPV. Also, 25 percent of the total benefits comes through onsite, 55 percent through down streams and 20 percent through neighboring sub-basins and due to reduced flooding risk.
Athar Kaveh; Mohammad Hossein Mahdian; Yahya Parvizi; Reza Sokouti Oskuee; Mohammad Hassan Masih Abadi
Abstract
Carbon storage is one of the assessment criteria of ecosystem sustainability, so land improvement and reclamation can be followed by investigating the effective managerial factors. This study was conducted to investigate the management scenarios and their effects on carbon storage in Sar Firoozabad watershed, ...
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Carbon storage is one of the assessment criteria of ecosystem sustainability, so land improvement and reclamation can be followed by investigating the effective managerial factors. This study was conducted to investigate the management scenarios and their effects on carbon storage in Sar Firoozabad watershed, Kermanshah province, Iran. Mapping units were prepared with combination of slope and aspect layers. The common management systems in the form of scenarios of residue management, crop rotation, and tillage were investigated and relevant indices were quantified. In the next step, the watershed area was separated into homogeneous zones and soil sampling in the units, was performed using a randomized systematic method. After transporting the samples to laboratory, soil organic carbon storage was calculated by determining their bulk density, texture, and organic carbon. Results of multivariate analysis showed that seven variables of tillage index, cereal sequence, straw burning, manure application, rotation systems, winter fallow and plow direction predict 52 percent of the soil carbon storage variability with 0.724 correlation coefficient and 0.46 modeling efficiency, using the cluster analysis,. In general, it can be concluded that cluster analysis is recommended for investigating carbon storage in soils and rotation and tillage systems are significant examples of soil management components that are certainly very important in terms of carbon storage.
Nadergholi Ebrahimi; Reza Sokouti Oskoee
Abstract
Mountainous rivers have characterized by steep slope, roughness due to bedrock and coarse aggregation, bed and marginal vegetation as well as severe and rapid spatial displacement of the surface substrate morphology. The protection role of vegetation in the river bank is known as an economic and environmental ...
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Mountainous rivers have characterized by steep slope, roughness due to bedrock and coarse aggregation, bed and marginal vegetation as well as severe and rapid spatial displacement of the surface substrate morphology. The protection role of vegetation in the river bank is known as an economic and environmental option that decreases hydraulic conductivity power of the river through the rising of roughness coefficient and rising water level. This study aimed to estimate the flow resistance and roughness coefficient of the river that is affected by the physical and biophysical factors of the Shahr-chay River bed in West Azerbaijan in three selected river reach. Results showed that none of the proposed equations for estimation of roughness coefficient depend on energy slope, but in general, without affecting flow, roughness coefficient in mountain streams depends only on the degree of submergence. Marginal trees can affect Froude number by increasing margin pressure and friction forces, also, enhancing the hydraulic depth, less than critical depth. It was also found the equation for estimating roughness coefficient both with and without marginal trees, have different coefficients and can provides roughness coefficient prediction possibility for mountainous rivers. Comparing the obtained relations both with and without its fringe of trees showed that fringe trees can increase the flow depth and roughness coefficient. Coefficient of determination of all mathematical relations was above 0.99 and calculated relative error was 0.001- 0.008 that demonstrates the suitability of the model to estimate the roughness coefficient.
hasan izanloo; kaka shahedi; karim solaimani
Abstract
Assessment of metals absorbed to suspended solids in urban floods, allows managers to take measures to improve the quality of the urban environment. This article examines the changes in the concentration of heavy metals such as lead, zinc and copper in suspended load of runoff from the Bojnourd urban ...
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Assessment of metals absorbed to suspended solids in urban floods, allows managers to take measures to improve the quality of the urban environment. This article examines the changes in the concentration of heavy metals such as lead, zinc and copper in suspended load of runoff from the Bojnourd urban watershed in autumn and spring seasons. For this reason, 52 samples were collected. After preparing the samples, separation of suspended sediment using the Whatman filter paper and then weighing the amount of sediment in runoff, using atomic absorption, the amount of heavy metals dissolved in runoff and heavy metals absorbed to suspended solids in runoff were measured in terms of ppb. The results showed that the amount of suspended sediment weight is higher in spring than autumn. Results indicated that the maximum concentration of insoluble heavy metals and attached to sediments is more than soluble heavy metals in runoff. On the other hand, the results revealed that the mean maximum concentration of zinc and copper, except lead attached to sediments, is higher in the spring than autumn and the spatial concentration of zinc and copper in samples of runoff suspended sediments from Sandalabad Stream (FC3S) is higher. While on the lead, concentration for the samples taken from the runoff pathways and drainage network (FB2S) was higher. However, the difference in location of data for heavy metals absorbed to suspended sediments is not statistically significant. The Pearson correlation test results showed that there is a positive but low correlation between lead and zinc (r =0.166) in the autumn and the lead and copper (r=0.271) in the spring. Significance of this correlation is certified using hierarchical cluster analysis method.
Hesam Ghodousi; Samira Sadaat Morsali
Abstract
Crop pattern has significant effect on optimum use of water resources and agricultural management. Present research accomplished to achieve optimum crop pattern in Aharchai Basin located in the downstream of Sattarkhan Dam. The study area is about 3000 ha using traditional irrigation method, ...
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Crop pattern has significant effect on optimum use of water resources and agricultural management. Present research accomplished to achieve optimum crop pattern in Aharchai Basin located in the downstream of Sattarkhan Dam. The study area is about 3000 ha using traditional irrigation method, wherein low irrigation efficiency and water shortage are the most important problems. In order to determine optimum crop pattern and to provide a suitable way to increase agricultural benefit and productivity, a linear programming model in both cases of the current and improved irrigation system conditions was simulated in the Mathematica software. After simulation, in order to maximize benefits, the area of each product was determined through two different simulation states. Results showed that if agricultural lands employ modern irrigation methods, the benefit of agricultural activities would increase by 30%, i.e. it would rise from 98 to 128 billion Riyals in a year.
Ramin Salmasi; Mohsen Farahbakhsh; Hossein Asadi
Abstract
There is critical need for a practical indicator to assess the potential of phosphorus (P) movement from a given site to surface waters, either via surface runoff or subsurface drainage. The Degree of P Saturation (DPS), which relates a measure of P already adsorbed by a soil to its P adsorption capacity, ...
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There is critical need for a practical indicator to assess the potential of phosphorus (P) movement from a given site to surface waters, either via surface runoff or subsurface drainage. The Degree of P Saturation (DPS), which relates a measure of P already adsorbed by a soil to its P adsorption capacity, could be a good indicator of that soils P release capacity. For our country soils, there is not any report for DPS calculating. This study aimed to develop techniques of calculating the DPS for calcareous soils of western Azerbayjan, Uremieh Lake sub-watershed, obtaining DPS levels for calcareous soils, and evaluating DPS by use of soluble P as indicator of P runoff potential. For this purpose, 30 surface soil samples with widely P contents were selected and after determining some of general physico-chemical properties, useing of four measures of soil available P and four indices of P sorption capacity, sixteen different forms of DPS were obtained. Significant correlation was obtained between soluble P and different forms of DPS in this study. Threshold P concentration between four extractants, were obtained for Olsen, Mehlich-3, and Soltanpour ones, except in calculations with Mg as P adsorbed contributor in range of 0.4-33 percent, with 8.14 mean, and for FeO extractant, only in calculations with Ca + Mg as adsorbing one was obtained that was equal to 1.3 percent. Degree of P saturation in soils with higher than threshold P concentration values are sustainable to P runoff via surface runoff or leaching, and as a result eutrophication intensification, and for control this phenomenon should apply management practices with regard to different situations of watershed.
Vahid Moosavi; Mehdi Hayatzadeh
Abstract
Groundwater recharge or deep drainage or deep percolation is a hydrologic process where water moves downward from surface water to groundwater. Recharge is the primary method through which water enters an aquifer. Groundwater recharge depends ...
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Groundwater recharge or deep drainage or deep percolation is a hydrologic process where water moves downward from surface water to groundwater. Recharge is the primary method through which water enters an aquifer. Groundwater recharge depends on several factors such as infiltration capacity, stochastic characteristics of rainfall, and climate factors. Groundwater recharge is of great importance especially in semiarid regions. In arid and semi-arid regions of the world, groundwater serves as an essential alternative to surface water resources for water supply purposes. It plays a significant role in meeting the water demands of man and the ecosystem and is perceived as the panacea to the looming water scarcity scare. Determination of recharge quantity provides worthy help for managers in water resources management. Ground water recharge includes recharge as a natural part of the hydrologic cycle and human-induced recharge, either directly through spreading basins or injection wells, or as a consequence of human activities such as irrigation and waste disposal. The Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) is a river basin scale model developed to quantify the impact of land management practices in large, complex watersheds. SWAT is a public domain hydrology model with the following components: weather, surface runoff, return flow, percolation, evapotranspiration, transmission losses, pond and reservoir storage, crop growth and irrigation, groundwater flow, reach routing, nutrient and pesticide loading, and water transfer. SWAT is a continuous time model that operates on a daily time step at basin scale. Its objective is to predict the long-term impacts of management and of the timing of agricultural practices within a year (i.e., crop rotations, planting and harvest dates, irrigation, fertilizer, and pesticide application rates and timing). It can be used to simulate at the basin scale water and nutrients cycle in landscapes whose dominant land use is agriculture. It can also help in assessing the environmental efficiency of best management practices and alternative management policies. In this study, the hydrologic process of the Marvast basin was simulated using SWAT Model in order to determine the amount of groundwater recharge in Marvast plain. In this way, firstly, the required maps i.e. slope, soil and land use maps were produced. In order to produce land use maps, panchromatic and multi-spectral imagery were fused to enhance the spectral and spatial resolution of Landsat imagery. In the next step, the fused imagery was used to produce land use maps using pixel based and object oriented image processing techniques. The slope map was produced using digital elevation model. The soil map was also produced using soil profiles in the regions. The requisite climatic data were also imported to the model with a daily scale. According to the importance of irrigation and its effect on evapotranspiration and groundwater recharge, irrigation amounts were also considered importing irrigation plan in SWAT Model. Afterwards, the model was calibrated using SWAT CUP software and the SUFI-2 algorithm. Finally, the verification showed that the model with Nash-Sutcliff of 0.59, coefficient of determination of 0.83 and the root mean square error of 0.05 has a relatively good performance. The results showed that object oriented image processing technique outperformed pixel based technique. It was shown that the amount of groundwater recharge was 27082602 cubic meters and the irrigation water return coefficient is 34%. It was confirmed that SWAT Model has a relatively good performance for groundwater recharge modeling. Improving the cropping pattern, preventing development of unauthorized wells and excessive groundwater withdrawals, as well as proper irrigation systems, can be effective in reducing the groundwater storage deficiency and preventing an increase in water resource crisis. This study showed that this model is not efficient for short term runs, however, its performance is better for long term runs. It is suggested that the SWAT and MODFLOW Model be used together to study both surface and underground currents. Also, lysimeters or SWAP Model can be used to better determine the amount of return flow and groundwater recharge.
Jamal Mosaffaie; Davood Nikkami; Amin Salehpour Jam
Abstract
In order to achieve sustainable development, planning an appropriate management program is essential. Watersheds are the main units of land management and the main objective of this paper is to review the history, current status and future management needs of these units in Iran. For this purpose, the ...
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In order to achieve sustainable development, planning an appropriate management program is essential. Watersheds are the main units of land management and the main objective of this paper is to review the history, current status and future management needs of these units in Iran. For this purpose, the concepts of watershed and watershed management were explained and organizational structure, activities and current approach to watershed management have been investigated. Four case studies of the approach and practices of watershed management in Iran and abroad were also mentioned (two internal samples and two external). The historic course of watershed management in Iran indicates that signs of changing approach are ongoing from a traditional mechanical to the systemic management approach. As a general conclusion for improving integrated management of watersheds in Iran, some suggestions were offered as follow: improving the current organizational structure of watershed management and establishing committees called watershed council, considering the scale of the watershed, applying a united and appropriate watershed management model, shifting the attitudes from technical engineering to managerial approaches toward the nature of watershed management, watershed participatory governance and establishing an unitary and coherent organizational structure.
Mahmoudreza Tabatabaei; Amin Salehpour Jam; Jamal Mosaffaie
Abstract
IntroductionThe cycle of soil erosion (including removal, transport and deposition) that controls the sedimentation of watersheds, includes a set of complex and highly nonlinear processes. On the other hand, the factors influencing sedimentation in watersheds are very diverse, and according to the specific ...
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IntroductionThe cycle of soil erosion (including removal, transport and deposition) that controls the sedimentation of watersheds, includes a set of complex and highly nonlinear processes. On the other hand, the factors influencing sedimentation in watersheds are very diverse, and according to the specific conditions of climate, soil, vegetation, geology, topography, etc., in each basin, the weight and role of each of the mentioned factors in sediment production is very different. Accurately determining and measuring these factors and making mathematical relationships between them are often difficult, expensive, time-consuming and error-prone, and this is the case with the use of models based on computational intelligence and the use of a limited number of basin dynamic variables, it is possible to simulate the behavior of the watershed in sediment production. Regardless of the type of intelligent models, in most of the conducted research (especially in internal research), the simulation of suspended sediment is mainly based on the discharge variable and the role of variables such as precipitation (especially precipitation obtained from satellite images), which are effective in the sedimentation of basins, have received less attention. In addition to precipitation, the skewness of sediment measurement data is also one of the issues that lack of recognition and attention will reduce the efficiency of estimator models. In the present study, the role of variable daily rainfall (taken from CHIRPS satellite) in the simulation of suspended sediment of Qarachai River has been investigated. Materials and methodsMulti-layer perceptron artificial neural network was used in order to simulate the daily suspended sediment concentration of Qarachai River (at the Ramian hydrometer station in Golestan province). In this regard, the variables of discharge and previous discarge (in instantaneous and daily scales) as well as the average daily and previous rainfall of the basin (taken from CHIRPS satellite) for a statistical period of 37 years (1980-2017) as variables model input was used. In order to increase the generalization power of the models, self-organized mapping neural network (for data clustering) and gamma test was used to find the best combination of input variables. In order to improve the efficiency of network training, a variety of activation and loss functions as well as the overfitting prevention algorithm were used. In order to investigate the effect of using activation and loss functions in suspended sediment estimation, different scenarios were considered, which led to the construction of 9 models. After that, using validation indicators, the effectiveness of the models in simulating suspended sediment was investigated and compared, and then the best model was selected. Results and discussionThe results obtained from the present research showed that among the different models, the neural network model with Huber's activation function and ReLU loss function, having the average absolute value of the error equal to 368 mg/l, the root mean square error equal to 597 mg per liter, the Nash-Sutcliffe coefficient of 0.87 and the percent bias -2.2% were selected as the best model. The results also showed that the use of the rainfall variable (as one of the important factors in causing erosion and sediment transfer in the basin) has improved the efficiency of the models, therefore, considering the ease of using CHIRPS satellite rainfall data, it is suggested in order to simulate the suspended sediment of rivers, this data is also used along with other predictive variables. ConclusionIn the simulation of suspended sediment, discharge variable is often used as the only predicting variable of suspended sediment, while in basins with rainy, or rainy-snow regimes, the role of precipitation in the production of surface runoff and soil erosion is very important and plays an important role in the production and transport of sediment in the basin. In this regard, although the use of rainfall data obtained from ground rain gauge stations has played an effective role in increasing the efficiency of data-based models in estimating suspended sediment, however, the preparation of hundreds of spatial distribution layers of daily rainfall from the data point data of ground stations, the use of this variable in the simulation of the suspended sediment of the basin has been faced with many problems (such as the lack or inappropriateness of the spatial distribution of rain gauge stations, statistical deficiencies, the use of inappropriate interpolation methods and time-consuming calculations). Therefore, in practice, the variable of river flow is often used as a predictor of sediment, and precipitation is used less often. One of the solutions to the problem mentioned in the present study is the use of CHIRPS satellite data, which was investigated for the first time in this study. These data, available since 1981, can easily be used to simulate suspended sediment or other applications related to watersheds. Another important point that needs to be taken into account in the simulation of suspended sediment is the presence of high skewness in sediment measurement data (both suspended sediment and flow rate), which lack of attention in the process of training (or recalibration) and testing the models leads to It will lead to the construction of weak models in terms of efficiency and the existence of uncertainty in the accuracy of their results. In this regard, it is necessary to use logarithmic transformations or suitable functions of activation and loss in the training process, which in this research, two functions, ReLU and Huber, were proposed respectively. Another important point is to pay attention to the generalization power of data-based models, which is largely dependent on the data used in their calibration or training process. These data should be selected in such a way that while they are representative of the data in the entire statistical period, they are similar and have the same distribution with other data sets (such as cross-validation or test sets). According to the results obtained from the present research and in order to increase the efficiency of artificial neural network models in estimating the suspended sediment of watershed hydrometric stations, it is suggested to use the experiences obtained in this research in other sediment measuring stations of the country.
Yahya Parvizi
Abstract
All worldwide studies verifies global phenomenon of climate change caused by the greenhouse effect of carbon emissions on this planet. Carbon sequestration in terrestrial ecosystem is a sustainable approach, with no environmental risks. One of the key potential in carbon sequestration in our country ...
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All worldwide studies verifies global phenomenon of climate change caused by the greenhouse effect of carbon emissions on this planet. Carbon sequestration in terrestrial ecosystem is a sustainable approach, with no environmental risks. One of the key potential in carbon sequestration in our country is the watershed management biomechanical operations in the natural resources areas. This research was conducted to evaluate this operation options in north and middle parts of Zagros ecological zone in atmospheric carbon sequestration and to offer optimal options for these regions. For this purpose, in each of the provinces (Kermanshah, Lorestan, Kurdistan and Fars), one or more representative sites were selected. Then, soil, biomass and litter sampling were taken by field operations using systematic randomized method. Soil organic carbon and other soil physic-chemical properties and carbon stock of biomass and litter samples were determined in the laboratory. Then, carbon sequestration indices including soil, biomass, litter and total carbon sequestration, were measured per hectare. Analysis of the research results indicated that these operations are mainly planting of different trees along with flood and water spreading and bankets. Watershed management operations sequester up to 3.41 to 112.1 tons of carbon per hectare. Contribution of soil from total carbon sequestration was around 95 to 99 percent measured across different study site. Native terracing with tree planting of grapes (Vitis spp) and almond (Amygdalus spp) were the more efficient option in carbon sequestration along the selected areas.
Arash Zare Garizi; Ali Talebi; Monireh Faramarzi
Abstract
In this study, SWAT model was used for simulating soil erosion and sediment transport in Gharesou Watershed, Golestan Province and for identifying and prioritizing critical areas of soil erosion. After model calibration, validation and uncertainty analysis using semi-automatic SUFI-2 method, the outputs ...
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In this study, SWAT model was used for simulating soil erosion and sediment transport in Gharesou Watershed, Golestan Province and for identifying and prioritizing critical areas of soil erosion. After model calibration, validation and uncertainty analysis using semi-automatic SUFI-2 method, the outputs of the calibrated model were used for assessing spatial pattern of soil erosion and sediment. For this purpose, four indices including: load per unit area index, concentration index, load index and total index were defined and analyzed based on the model outputs. The results indicated that, despite lack and uncertainty of available data, SWAT model performance in simulating soil erosion and sediment transport in Gharesou watershed is quite acceptable. During calibration, the simulated monthly sediment loads matched the observed values with a Nash-Sutcliffe coefficient of 0.24 and PBIAS of -17%. The values for validation period were 0.2 and -12.1% respectively, indicating the model’s weakness in simulating sediment dynamics and its capability in predicting average sediment load. Assessing spatial pattern of erosion and sediment indices showed that, in general, critical sub-watersheds based on load per unit area index are located in upstream areas of watershed while sensitive sub-watersheds in terms of sediment concentration are situated in the middle part of the watershed, and sensitive sub-watersheds with respect to sediment load are in downstream. Suitable conservation practices were recommended for each zone based on their ecohydrological conditions. The outputs of this study can help experts and managers in planning of management practices for the watershed.
