Authors
- Davood Niknezhad 1
- Mohammad Roghani 2
- Abolfazh Nasseri 3
- Jamshid Yarahmadi 3
- Karim Mehrvarz 1
- Mohammadebrahim Sadegzadeh 4
1 Scientific Board, Agricultural and Natural Resources Research Center, Eastern Azerbaijan, Iran
2 Assistant Professor, Soil Conservation and Watershed Management Research Institute, Iran
3 Assistant Professor, Agricultural and Natural Resources Research Center, Eastern Azerbaijan, Iran
4 MSc, Agricultural and Natural Resources Research Center, Eastern Azerbaijan, Iran
Abstract
Optimum application of precipitation, especially snow and rain, is very important, particularly in arid and semi-arid areas. Establishing rainwater harvesting systems with high runoff coefficient and therefore runoff storage can produce sustainable conditions to meet the water requirement of the plants and trees in dry seasons. For this purpose, three treatments including natural surface intact, covered with riprap and plastic cover with riprap were selected. The areas of each experimental plot were four m2 with square shapes and average slope of 11-18 percent were constructed. Results from 34 rainfall events showed that the amount of runoff from natural surfaces with riprap, intact natural surface and plastic cover with riprap treatments were 13, 20 and 57 percent of the amount of rainfall, respectively. The rainfall thresholds to initiate runoff in the treatments were 5.3, 4.7 and 2.6 mm, respectively. The highest runoff produced by plastic surface with riprap and this system is suggested as an appropriate option to collect rainwater in this study.
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