JOURNAL OF WATERSHED MANAGEMENT RESEARCH
Year:2020 | Volume:11 | Issue:21|Papers Count:27

River and reservoir routing is very important in prediction of flood outflow from the catchment area. Therefore, accuracy of this calculation has close relationship with the increasing of accuracy in the outflow from the catchment area. The Muskingum method is a river routing methods, K and X coefficients are determined according to the type of catchment area and the river. But in most watersheds, these coefficients are considered approximately due to lack of parameters. Therefore, the aim of this study is to calibrate the Muskingum method in the Garmrood basin by determines K and X coefficients. Therefore At first, HEC-HMS software was used to calculate the flood for each sub-basin and then river routing was calculated using a computerized model. Aco algorithm is used in order to calibrate total of 36 decision variables (including 18 variables for K and 18 variables for X). Root Mean Square Error between computed and observed hydrograph data were taken as objective function. The results showed that the optimal coefficients reduced the value of the objective function about 28% and 4. 2% respectively in calibration and verification periods.

The first step of the implementation of water projects is recognizing the characteristics of rainfall, and awareness of the weather and climate of the region. Because of the spatial and time variations of rainfall, it requires much denser network to supervise compared to the other meteorological factors. Therefore, optimal localization of the stations is very necessary. Accordingly, monthly rainfall data of rain gauge stations were collected at the basin and adjacent areas first. The primary rain gauge network was created by considering the period with the largest number of the stations, the most statistical The first step of the implementation of water projects is recognizing the characteristics of rainfall and awareness of the weather and climate of the region. Because of the spatial and time variations of rainfall, it requires much denser network to supervise compared to the other meteorological factors. Therefore, optimal localization of the stations is very necessary. Accordingly, monthly rainfall data of rain gauge stations were collected at the basin and adjacent areas first. The primary rain gauge network was created by considering the period with the largest number of the stations, the most statistical years, and the lowest rebuilding ratio. Then all of time series data were analyzed by statistical analysis including normal and homogeneous tests and stations with errors and non-homogeneous statistics were removed or modified from the total stations. According to the results of normal tests, annual rainfall in 5 stations, due to their smaller amount of tests’ values toward their critical value, does not follow normal distribution. Also, the results of homogeneous tests indicated that 91. 7% of selected stations in the basin were confirmed in term of the accuracy of the recorded rainfall data and could be used in hydrological analysis or water resources after this. With the spatial analysis of the precipitation entropy, the amount of information transmission entropy was calculated in the basin area and was considered as a criterion in determining the points with the potential of establishing a new station. The results indicate that the six stations of Shabestar, Sharafkhaneh, Zarnagh-Heris, Harzandat, Kalibar and Ghoshchi-sarab, while having low ranks in the network, are in critical condition and are the weakest stations in the basin. On the other hand, the stations of Saeedabad, Bashsizovjan, Maragheh, Khormazard and Shirin Kandy have the highest rank among other stations, and are five important studied stations in the basin that produce the most useful information in the network. In order to perform the optimization process, an objective function for the whole basin was determined and then the Firefly algorithm was used to obtain the best localization for rain gauge stations. The best localization is obtained by adding 9 stations after checking the results.

The construction of large dams such as the Alborz Reservoir Dam in spite of water supply in drinking and agricultural sectors is undoubtedly associated with large changes in natural ecosystems. Knowing and awareness of these changes is essential in order to plan and manage sustainable areas affected by the dam. simultaneous use of remote sensing and geographic information technology is one of the common methods for monitoring changes in the region. In this regard, the purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between land cover / land use changes by constructing and dewatering of Alborz Dam using remote sensing and geographic information systems. To this end, two Landsat satellite images were used during the 22-year period (1994 and 2016) by applying radiometric and atmospheric correction as illustrating the changes in land cover / land use of the region before and after constructing. Then, , land cover/land use maps were produced by using the supervised classification method of the support vector machine and the accuracy of the classifications were evaluated and Analysis of time-varyings land cover / land use was also performed by producing of change detection map. In addition to, LQ index was used to study the spatial variations of different land cover / land use classes. According to the results, over two decades, the area of forest cover increased by 22. 7 hectares, the area of agriculture and pasture, as well as construction areas decreased by 735. 66 hectares and 17. 82 hectares respectively and the area of water which has submerged the above classes, was 530. 37 hectars. Investigating the changes in the spatial pattern of land cover / land use showed that the most changes in the upstream side (dam reservoir) with LQ equal to 1. 68, belongs to the water, which clearly indicates the effect of Alborz dam construction and dewatering on land cover / land use changes at upstream side of the dam.

As a consequence of population growth and increasing water demands, the importance of groundwater resources, as one of the vital fresh water supplies in arid regions, becomes plainly evident. In the current research, seven factors namely mean annual precipitation, drainage density, fault density, lithology, slope, and land use/land cover were chosen to identify groundwater potential zones. The thematic factor maps were created and the corresponding class and factor weights were assigned to factor maps using the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method. The groundwater potential map was created by superimposing the weighted thematic maps. The final potential map was validated by discharge data corresponding to 88 wells and springs located in the study area. The results indicate that the accuracy of the AHP method is about 78%. HHHGThe zones with high groundwater potential are situated in the regions covered with conglomeratic attached sediments, sandstone, old river traces, and areas with higher fault density. Moreover, mean annual precipitation has the highest contribution (0. 355) to modeling process while the geomorphology (0. 059) factor has the lowest importance. A total of around 49 percent of the study area identified to have moderate to high ground water potential. The results suggest that the AHP method has a high capability in identifying groundwater potential zones in the Hable-rud River Basin.

Flood is one of the natural hazards that causes numerous financial and life damages each year. Therefore, flood potential prioritizing is crucial to reduce the damages caused by it. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) in flood potential prioritizing of Barajin sub-catchments. So, flood potential of sub-catchments was determined using AHP and the results are compared with the outputs of the HEC-HMS model as observed data. The results showed that in addition to full compliance of the two maps, there is a significant correlation (0. 9299 and 0. 934) between flooding potential ranks and peak flood discharge ranks with the return periods of 25 and 50 years of sub-catchments. The weights of AHP were also showed that in the flood of sub-catchments, generally, hydro-climatic criteria (weight = 0. 65) is more important than morphometric criteria (weight = 0. 35); and the rainfall intensity is the most important sub-criteria (weight = 0. 373). Based on the final ranking, sub-catchments of 5, 3, and 4 that are located in upland and mountainous areas, have high flood potential due to the high weight of tow sub-criteria, one rainfall intensity, and the other 25-years rainfall. The results of this study could be a good guide for controlling floods of the study area in addition to understanding the processes governing the watershed.

Drought is an inseparable part of any climate that has significant effects on different parts of the community and it increases the stress on water resources. Therefore, predicting its future status can help planners and decision makers in different sectors. In this study, for predicting drought in different time scales of the SPEI drought index, from 5 different inputs, including SPEI values with a lag of 1 to 5 months, then three intelligent methods including Gene Expression Programming (GEP), Bayesian Network (BN) and Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) were used to predict future values. The results showed that all three methods in the short-term time-scale of the SPEI index are not appropriate so that the best performance in the one-month time scale is related to the Bayesian network model with a correlation coefficient of 0. 142 and in the 3-month time-scale is related to the ANN model with correlation coefficient of 0. 704. The results also showed that predictive accuracy of the model has a direct correlation with the SPEI calculation scale and, with increasing SPEI time scale, predictive accuracy increases. Also, all three methods have good performance in long-term time-scales.

The use of retarding reservoirs is one of the methods of urban flood management structures to reduce the volume or intensity of floods as well as repulsed of flooding flows. In this research, the effect of intercity retarding reservoirs on flood peak discharge and the dimensions of conduits was analyzed in one of the subcatchment of Sari (Gozarkhan) for this purpose, after determine the designing rainfall with 5 years return period based on SCSIIchr('39')s method and the concentration time of subcatchments was calculated by using the experimental methods of Kerby and Kirpich, the simulation of the network without reservoirs was performed by using SWMM software and the flood peak discharge and the dimensions of conduits were determined then, with flood retarding reservoirs, re-simulation and the effect of reservoirs on peak of output discharge and the dimensions of conduits were determined. In order to determine the volume of flood retarding reservoirs, first by considering several quantity for volume and drawing output discharge and variations graphs in relation to the volume of the reservoir, for each reservoir, the volume with the lowest rate of variation of the discharge was considered as the optimal amount. The results show that the retarding reservoirs reduce the flood rate in output node 3266, 86% and in output node 4004, 89%, as well as the dimensions of the conduits (average cross-section of conduits) reduce 57% in study area.

One of the challenges of todaychr('39')s world, in order to solve this problem, different countries should manage their water resources in the best way. With the occurrence of droughts and the excessive withdrawal of water resources, livelihoods of local communities are facing critical situations. Therefore, the main Purpose of this study was to Pathology of Underground Water Resources Management among Local Communities in the Western Basin of Jasmourian Wetland. The statistical population of the study consisted of a total of 6112 users, Has Deep and Semi-deep wells in the Western Basin of Jasmourian Wetland. Using the Cochran sampling formula Number 174 people were selected for study. The instrument of the study was a questionnaire which its validity was confirmed by a panel of experts and its reliability was established by calculating Chronbachchr('39')s Alpha Coefficient. Data analysis was done by SPSS win18 software. Results of correlation analysis showed that there is a positive and significant relationship between The amount of income, government support, the use of participatory approach, education level, government support, the use of communication media, the use of educational-promotional publications, the views on the management of agricultural water resources and knowledge of the management of groundwater resources with the use of groundwater resources management operations in Agriculture section. In addition, the results of ordinal logistic regression showed that between Variable independent the variable of knowledge of using water resources management operations with the value (0. 087) has the greatest impact on agricultural water management. In addition, the results of the Factor analysis of the pathology of untapped exploitation of groundwater resources in environmental, economic, social and psychological factors were classified which together account for nearly 77 percent of Variance the total number of agents this means known from 100 percent factors of the 77 percent factor in this research.

Given the reduction of quality and quantity of water sources in Yazd province, the consumption management approach should be considered. Separation of drinking water from sanitary water is one of the important components of quantitative and qualitative management of consumption. In the present study, scenario of dual water distribution network were evaluated in Gazorgah (old texture) and Safaieh (new texture) regions of Yazd province using EPAnet software in both technical and economic perspective. Investment costs of dual water distribution network in new and old texture are respectively 12595. 1 and 20366. 66 million rials. Current costs in new and old texture are respectively 736. 80 (11. 9% primary investment) and 1308. 72 (6. 4% primary investment) million rials. The cost of distributing each cubic meter of drinking water for dual water distribution network in old and new texture are respectively 113930 and 87630 rials. The results of economic analysis of the methods using Net Present Value (NPV) showed that both methods have positive NPV index, which shows the success of projects from an economic point of view. In relation to the comparison of the sales price of drinking water, the dual water distribution network method in new texture with price of 46000 rials per cubic meter, relation to old texture with price of 60500 rials, has higher NPV and more economical. Estimated costs of dual water distribution network showed that in new texture was more costly than in old texture. The cause can be searched for in population density. As a result, dual water distribution network method is more economical in new texture. Because demand is higher in new texture. But since other parameters such as ease of access to drinking water distribution network, the age of the people, social acceptance is important, so in the old texture, dual water method is suggested. Therefore, by the implementation of this project, water conservation culture can be managed in a fair way through stable tariffs for drinking water and sanitary water rationing.

Drought study and forecasting requires accurate monitoring of this climate risk. Standard precipitation index (SPI) is the most common index in drought monitoring. But there are some shortcomings, such as the lack of seasonal changes, the problem of self-affiliation in the high time series, and the consideration of the gammachr('39')s distribution function for all-time series. In this research, to resolve the bugs of SPI, it was tried to first select the appropriate distribution of precipitation from 8 different distributions. Secondly, the modified standard precipitation index (SPImod) was used to resolve the seasonal variation problem. The SPImod and SPI indexes were compared in five stations from different parts of Iran with different temperature and humidity conditions during the 55-year period (1956-2010). The results of the most suitable probability distribution function of precipitation data showed that the gamma function was not one of the selected functions in any of the cases and that the General-pareto, Weibull, and Generalized extreme value functions were the most suitable fitted distribution functions at the stations under study. Comparison of SPI and SPImod correlation coefficient showed that increasing the time series, increases the correlation coefficients. In the wet areas, the two indexes are more similar to each other. Based on the findings, there was a significant difference between SPI and SPImod at all stations, which was less significant at time series than one, three, and six months at a much higher level than in the time series Over the last 12 months, the two indexes almost matched each other. The results also showed that the difference between these two indexes was more pronounced in dryer stations. SPI seems to monitor dryness, especially in dry areas rather than droughts, so the use of SPImod instead of SPI provides more precise results due to the elimination of seasonal effects of precipitation.

Identification of habitats potential of endemic species can facilitate conservation planning and rehabilitation programs in watershed. The purpose of this study is modelling the distribution of Artemisia aucheri habitats in watershed of Baladeh Nour city, Mazandaran province. For achieve of this objective, environmental map variables (physiographic, soil and climate parameters) was prepared with geographic information systems techniques in cell size of 10 x 10. Also; 60 site as well as the presence or absence of species were recorded by sampling classified – random. For each sampling site were recorded information about the presence or absence of species and environmental variables, and the relationship between species distribution and environmental factors was determined by using logistic regression (LR), and forecast maps the distribution of the Artemisia aucheri Boiss was produced in the study area. According to LR results, between 14 environmental variables: Slope, pH, Sodium Absorption Ratio, Silt and Annual Mean Temperature were the most important environmental factors influencing the distribution of the species. Evaluate the correctness statistical models were performed by using the kappa coefficient and ROC area under the curve plots. Value indices respectively are 0. 5 and 0. 75 for the logistic regression model; their values indicated the logistic regression method can to create potential habitat map on local scales. This model, therefore, can be applied to recognize potential sites for rangeland reclamation projects.

The prediction and modeling of land use changes is important for understanding the quantity and quality of possible future changes. The purpose of this research is to monitor land use changes in the past and to investigate the possibility of predicting them in the future using the LCM model in the Beheshabad watershed of Chaharmahal va Bakhtiari province. In this study, Landsat 5 TM sensors images of 1991 and 2008 and Landsat 8 OLI sensors images in 2016 were used and analyzed. Images of all three periods were classified into five categories of range lands, urban-construction areas, agricultural lands, garden lands and Bare lands. The prediction of land use status for 2016 was carried out using user maps of 1370 and 1387 using the LCM model based on artificial neural networks and Markov chain analysis. For this purpose, the spatial variables of the distance from the pastures, the distance from the residential and urban areas, the distance from the agricultural land, the distance from the garden, the distance from the Bare Lands, distance from the river, distance from the road, elevation or digital elevation model, slope and direction of the slope, are used as factors affecting changes in artificial neural network. The results of modeling the transmission force using artificial neural network in most. of the sub-models showed high accuracy (62 to 94 percent). The total error in modeling for the year 2016 obtained approximetly 23%, which reflects the large mismatch of the predicted image of the model with the image of the Earth reality and the acceptability of the model. The prediction results for the years of 1420 and 1429 showed that the area of range land and bare lands would be reduced and the area of urbanconstruction areas, garden lands and agricultural lands would becincrease.

Watershed practices play an important role in managing soil and water resources. On the other hand, the technical complexities and social issues of watershed projects have made it difficult to assess them. Quantitative and qualitative of socioeconomic evaluation methods both have strengths and weaknesses. Their combination can be effective in solving project evaluation problems. This research has been conducted to investigate the social and economic effects of watershed operations and collect the beneficiarieschr('39') viewpoints about these plans in Hasan-abdal basin in Zanjan Province. The method of this research is Descriptive and Analytical. The statistical population of this study consisted of heads of rural households residing in Hassanabdal basin (N=205) and based on the Morgan Table, 162 persons were selected using the cluster random sampling. A questionnaire was used to collect field data. The X2 test in SPSS20 and BCR and NPV economic analysis were used. The most significant impacts of the project are reducing the tendency to migrate, flood control, increasing the volume of groundwater, converting the low-yield drylands to the pasture lands, increasing the agricultural and garden products and reducing the costs. Implementation of watershed management plans in this area has not been effective in improving the social capital of the village, including increasing the participation and trust, raising the level of knowledge and skills of the people, increasing the income, increasing the employment opportunities and increasing the vegetation. The useful life of the research is estimated to be around 25 years, and the discount rate of 16% with the cost-benefit analysis of the data obtained in this period is greater than 1. The net present value of 1. 062 indicates the plan is economically justified.

Natural resource projects are planned and implemented to improve environmental and social conditions of socio-ecological systems. The purpose of this study is to determine and identify effects of implementing natural resource projects on socioeconomic issues of rural, as well as to obtain relevant views and opinions of the villagers. The study area is villages of ChahNouroz Watershed in Qaleh_E_Ganj county of Kerman, Iran. The sample size was selected according to the number of households in the community, and based on Cochranchr('39')s formula. The households were systematic randomly surveyed by a questionnaire. According to the results, since economic aspects of the activities had been poorly evaluated, the needed efficiency and effectiveness of implementation of the projects in the region were not met, and they are unable to influence on employment and or on non-immigration of the villagers. Furthermore, rural satisfactions are not achieved while using rural resources for the projects, and in total, the majority are not satisfied with these projects and their achievements. In general, it should be noted that the implementation of these projects has had little effect on improving the socioeconomic status of the villagers. The findings of this research provide the basis for how policy-making can be adapted as well as quantity and quality of natural resource projects.

The present research has been executed in order to investigation of rainwater harvesting systems capability in runoff generation for supplying part of water required for hillside orchards. It is an innovative effort to establish a close link between watershed management activities and the production of horticultural products with a food security approach. Towards this attempt, in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiary province, 9 rectangular rainwater harvesting systems with dimensions of 4 × 3 m2 and 3 different managerial treatments (insulator surface, removed surface and natural vegetation cover) with 3 replicates and completely randomized design were made on a slope of 20 percent. At the end of each system, a reservoir has been installed to collect runoff coming from the plot. Rainfall amounts are estimated using a rain-gauge nearby and runoff volume was measured in the reservoir. Compare of the mean of treatments indicated that the system with insulator surface has generated the maximum runoff volume. The runoff volume generated by insulator surface was 5 times that of removed surface and 17. 5 times that of natural vegetation cover. The results showed that the mean runoff coefficient derived from the systems with insulator surface, removed surface and natural vegetation cover were respectively 64. 3, 7. 7 and 1. 8 percent. Also, the results showed that rainfall less than 5 mm has generated runoff only at insulator surface. Therefore, the other advantage of using insulator surfaces can be considered in the production of runoff in minimum rainfall. This issue, due to the frequency of rainfall events with values less than 5 mm in arid and semi-arid regions, makes it more necessary to use the insulator surfaces for harvesting of rainwater in these areas. So the use of insulator surfaces along with the installation of a runoff storage system and distribution of stored water in dry months is recommended to supply part of the water needed for hillside orchards.

Controlling and maintaining surface runoff for optimal use and recharge of groundwater resources is one of the important strategies in arid and semi-arid regions. Short earth dams are one of the least costly and most successful methods of flood control, water storage, groundwater utilization and sediment control. In this research, the Boolean model was used to locate these dams and the methods of network analysis process and VIKOR were used to prioritize it. In the first stage, using the Boolean model, inappropriate areas were removed and 43 potential areas were selected for the earth dam construction. Then using Google Earth and field views, 11 axes were designed to construct an earth dam in potential areas. Finally, these sites are used by network decision making process based on natural factors (rainfall, slope, geology, drainage and Erodibility) and socioeconomic factors (distance from city and village, distance from the road, distance from lending resources and water requirement), the results showed that the criterion of geology with relative importance of 0. 472 had the most effect on the choice of dam axis. Finally, the 7rd place with a score of 0. 115 in ANP method and 0. 035 prominences in Vikor method was the first priority (Rank) for Earth dam construction.

Floods cause erosion and sequestration of sedimentary material in rivers, and each of these factors causes deformation in river morphology. This change in shape annually damages the activities of the residents of the riverbank and its adjacent facilities, and it also presents problems along the river. In this regard, erodibility detection and zoning in a river is one of the issues that will be used to manage and control river erosion. This study was done on a 15 km downstream reach of Ghezel-Ozan River in north of IRAN. This part of the river in terms of geomorphology, is an alluvial river with fine to coarse bed material and due to geometric, hydraulic, geological and bed and side material conditions. Then the IRS and Landsat satellites images as well as aerial photos from 1968 to 2010, the plan and pattern of river displacement in GIS environment were investigated. In this study, after dividing the study area into 10 different intervals, the location of the riverbanks and river displacement widths at different time points, and the critical or degraded or deposited critical areas in each interval were determined. In addition, using factors such as soil moisture uptake capacity, vegetation cover and soil texture of the studied river margin as well as the hydraulic properties of the flows occurring, the factors affecting erosion at different intervals of the studied river were analyzed. Investigations of river deformation and geometrical characteristics of the river showed that the Ghezel-Ozan River at 9. 95 km was in the range of sinusoidal and meandering coefficient, and approximately 85% of the windings were in the range of meandering coefficient of 1. 06 to 1. 5. The number of Meander in the study period has decreased from 19 Meander in 1968 to 15 Meander in 2010. According to the criteria of the central angle arches, the most frequent central angle within this range (40%) were ranked in categories relating to meander developed 158-85, And the highest angle in 1968 is about 139 degrees and in 2010 is about 182 degrees and so this area is from the Ghezel-Ozan River, a young and dynamic Meander river. The results showed that the most unstable reach in the multi-thickness region is in the 5th reach. Decreasing the slope and decreasing the hydraulic power of the river have caused a multifaceted phenomenon in this area. The average radius of Meander was higher in 2010, due to the erosion of the riverbank, which is often alluvial and marl, indicating the radial development of Meander. Comparing the central line of the river in 1968 and 2010, it was also observed that there are different states of coastal erosion and shortening in the meander rings. Hydraulic factors associated with the instability of the banks along the river can be the erosion of the under of the walls due to the high velocity of flow at the bottom of these walls and its fall, and the occurrence of gully erosion over the walls due to inadequate drainage of farmland.

River flow simulation has particular importance to be aware of the river flow and determining flood discharges in the future periods. Different hydrologic processes such as interception, surface depression storage, infiltration, soil storage, percolation, and groundwater storage would be considered in continuous hydrologic modeling. Considering the different methods of hydrological simulation, continuous simulation has a best prediction because of the dry and wet conditions modeling during the long-term period. HEC-HMS model uses Soil Moisture Accounting (SMA) algorithm to simulate the long-term relationship between rainfall, runoff, storage, evapotranspiration, and soil losses. In this study, soil moisture accounting model (HMS SMA) was applied to determine the effect of soil moisture on runoff generation, evaluating of flows simulated, in the Zaremrod watershed, Mazandaran province. Daily R-R data (4 years, from 2006 to 2010) and monthly evapotranspiration data, Digital Elevation Model (DEM-25m) and the drainage network map were used for the calibration and validation of model. The results of simulation revealed that monthly scale with maximum value of the determination coefficient and Nash– Sutcliffe efficiency and minimum mean absolute error and root-mean-square error manifested the most accurate simulation in the calibration and validation. Generally Results of the research showed capability of HEC-HMS model with new model for losses calculation (SMA) for river flow simulation in the Zaremrod watershed.

Sedimentationin reduced the capacity and useable life of reserivors. Estimation of reservoir sedimentation rate can help us to proper management of designed useful capacity. In the present study, the sedimentation process of Shirin-Dare dam, which is located 65 km form the northeast of Bojnord city, was investigated. It is an earth dam with clay core and the initial volume of the reservoir at normal water level is 91. 5 million cubic meters (MCM). The numerical model HEC-RAS4. 1 was used to simulate flow and sediment transport. The hydrographic data of the Shirin-Dare reservoir at 2012 and 2017 was used for calibration of the model. The results of simulation with different sediment transport equations such as Laursen, Engelund and Hansen, Ackers and White, Toffaleti, Yang, Meyer-Peter and Muller, and Wilcock showed that using Larsen equation (1958) as a sediment transport equation, Ruby equation as fall velocity equation, substrate sorting method with Exner 5 and also using the Manning coefficient of roughness 0. 0035, there is a good match between the measured data and the results of the implementation of the HEC-RAS model. Also, simulation results for the next 100 years showed approximately 73. 2 million cubic meters of sediment will enter the reservoir, which will be about 80 percent of the initial volume of the reservoir. On average, about 0. 8% of the volume of the reservoir is lost annually due to sedimentation.

Groundwater resources are one of the most important water sources in each country. That proper knowledge and basic exploitation in this field can play a principal role in the sustainable development of the social and economic activities of a region, especially in semiarid and dry areas. The prediction of groundwater level fluctuations for supplying management and exploit Akon of watering is essential the purpose of this research is to predict Zawah-Torbat Heidarieh groundwater level32 fluctuations with a range of about 2054 square kilometers is located in the north of the desert pans on desert flats in, south of Mashhad. In order to training of the model, information from 18 piezometers extracted by the researchers of this study, which had a staggered surface alignment level with a time series of 20 years (1375-1395), was used. Each piezometer is registered on a monthly basis with a delay of t0-1 (last month), and in each piezometer, seven parameters form the system inputs. For process modeling, multi-layer perceptron neural networks with error propagation algorithm and LVQ network are used. The calculation error is calculated using the least squares method (MSE). The amount of groundwater level is also the only output of this neural network. The results of this study showed that the artificial neural network with the Gradient Descent, Gradient Descent With Momentum, Levenberg Marquardt algorithms was able to predict groundwater levels in the monthly interval is (RMSE=0/0012) in the training phase and is (RMSE=0/021) in the testing phase in the study area.

Geology is one of the most important factors in the production of runoff and sediment. Geological formations, on the one hand, control the topographic features of a domain, and on the other hand, control the soil and surface features of the earth which are considered to be the function of this organization. The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of Lithological units as the main factor in determining the volume of runoff production in watersheds. For this purpose, in the present study, 18 small watershed (the smallest area with an area of 17. 2 km2 and the largest one with 134. 1 km2) with a predominant lithology (as much as 70 percent of the study area is covered by the similar lithostratigraphic units) in three different climatic regions were analyzed based on the cumulative rainfall-runoff curves. The results of the study clearly indicate the significant effect of the Lithological units on the runoff coefficient, so that the watersheds with identical Lithological units have similar curves, and the watersheds with different Lithological units have different curves. Therefore, lithostratigraphic units with high porosity have high penetration and less runoff potential. For example, the Phyllithic areas in Khorasan Razavi have higher runoff potential than others, in fact, their porosities are less than those of andesitic and volcanic tuffs. The results also show a seasonal variation of runoff coefficient in the studied watersheds.

Fog is a potential source of water that can be collected and used with new technologies. If we used simple and low-cost harvesting systems, fog can be mentioned as suitable option to provide drinking water in the World. On the other hand, remote sensing applications have been proven in water resources management and detection of cloud and fog. The present study was carried out to determine the prone-areas for fog-water harvesting in the upstream of the Vazrud Watershed (located on the highlands of Alborz) using remote sensing technique. For this purpose, 17 environmental variables were used. The remote sensing variables (based on Landsat satellite imagery) included land use, surface temperature, and cloudy maps. Climate variables are included leeward effect, windward effect, daylight anisotropy heating, effective air flow heating, sky view factor, wind effect. Hydrological variables are included stream power index and topographic wetness index. Physiographic variables are included DEM, slope, aspect, curvature, catchment area and terrain ruggedness index. All above mentioned variables with the SDMs package in the R program that include 12 models (BRT, CART, FDA, GAM, GBM, GDM, GLM, MARS, Maxent, MDA, RF and SVM) as well as 190 ground control points using GPS-Garmin-76CSx were used as auxiliary data to prepare spatial distribution of fog-water harvesting. In order to evaluate above mentioned models, the ROC curve was used in the R program. The results based on ROC curve indicated that BRT, GBM, Maxent, RF and SVM models were selected as final models (high accuracy) for preparing a fog-water harvesting map. Therefore, the above models were used to prepare the Ensemble model. The spatial distribution of fog-water harvesting map based on the Ensemble model showed that the east, southeast and south of the Vazrud Watershed have the most suitable potential for water harvesting. Also, the areas with more than 2000 meters above sea level are the best fit for the extraction of water from fog, which are located in the southern parts of the basin.

Due to considerable effects of gully erosion on land degradation, it is the one of the serious kind of water erosion and thereby more costly control. This objective of this research was to determine some environmental thresholds of gully erosion which conducted in the Kermanshah province, Iran. The results explored that, there are significant differences of gully morphometery and thresholds between Sahneh (SA) and Ghasreshirin (GH) regions due to different geologic, topographic and vegetation properties. However, GH is located on Aghajari formation comprising marl deposits promoting more piping and head-cut formation than SA area. The mean gully length in fair rangeland (FR) and weak rangeland (WR) of SH region was 296 and 312 m, respectively that significantly were lower in GH region (985 and 1110 m for FR and WR, respectively). In contract, gully depth and wide characteristics were reverse for these regions. The respective gully catchment area for FR and WR was 1917 and 1236 m2 in SH region, while there was 5503 and 3668 m2 for GH region indicating significant higher value for GH due to gentle slope. However, relationship between slope and catchment area showed that the minimum slope and catchment areas for triggering gully erosion in the SH region was 11% and 280 m2, respectively, hence; in GH these respective levels were 3% and 1450 m2 also due to gentle slope of marl formation. It is concluded that gully properties and threshold are affected by geology and topography condition, while different gully characteristics within region is mainly controlled by landuse practices (converting FR to WR through improper grazing and subsequently decreasing plant cover and increasing bare soil). Thus there is more severe in GH because of considerable land use change and animal grazing, particularly during recent years.

In recent decades, drastic land use changes in Golestan province caused to reduce a substantial amount of Hyrcanian forest. To investigate the changes, land cover maps produced using Landsat satellite imagery classification of sensors TM from 1984, 2012 and 2016 respectively used as input data in Land Change Modeler (LCM) to predict land cover changes in 2030. In order to assess the accuracy of modeling, statistics of relative performance characteristic (ROC), ratio Hits/False Alarms and figure of merit was used. In continue to investigate the role of land use changes in water yield as one of ecosystem services was discussed. The results show the accuracy of artificial neural network with the ROC equal to 0. 949, the ratio Hits/False Alarms equal to 57 percent and the figure of merit is equal to 11 percent. Land use change modeling results showed that from 1984 to 2012, The most prominent changes were related to reduction of forest cover. This process modeling using artificial neural network showed, from 2016 to 2030 forest cover will be reduced about 30361 hectares. The results of water yield study showed that runoff in the area, particularly in the East and North East area has increased. This increase in the amount of runoff occurred as a result of land use change on forest ecosystems to agriculture. Results of this study improve our understanding of hydrological consequences of land-use changes, and provide needed knowledge for effectively developing and managing land-use for sustainability and productivity in the Gorgan-rood watershed.

Natural ecosystems such as rangelands have considerable economic potential and a function, the need to pay attention to them in pursuit of sustainable economic development in a country such as Iran is necessary. Accordingly, the goal of this research is determining recreation and conservation value of Lasem summer rangelands in Amol, Mazandaran province by 1335 ha area with CVM method. So, dual selection questionnaire and logit quality model were used. Model parameters were estimated based on the maximum right-sided method. The questionnaire was completed for 230 visitors in the one-year period (2017-2018). The results showed that in both estimations, the variables effect of bid and education at level 5 and 1 percentage had significant effect on wtp. The results of the research showed that average willingness to pay each family per visit for protecting each hectare of Lasem rangelands were 44526 rials and for recreation usage were 85012 respectively. Annual value of recreation and conservation of each ha of Lasem rangelands were 2183445 rials and 543212. 5 rials respectively. Also, the results showed that, total annual recreational and conservation value of summer rangelands of Lasem, were 2. 9 million rials/year and 1. 5 million rials/year. The willingness to pay approximately 2 times of visitors for recreational value relative to the conservation value reflects that if people do not use this waterfall directly for recreation, will have less willingness to pay. On the other hand, the low conservation value of the area compared to its recreational value, caused by the ignorance and disregard of people about the environmental services in this area. So, we will have a double effect if environmental policies go hand in hand with training and proper notification. So, pay attention to training and educational promotions to encourage environmental conservation of the region, will be very important.

Construction of underground dams as a new task in water resources management especially in arid and semi-arid regions of our country has received considerable attention recently. Outlet of large basins may be suitable places for constructing of underground dams according to appropriate topography and slope characteristics. However finding of suitable locations for constructing the underground dams in large areas is another important task in order to improve management of water resources. Here, the Ghori Chai basin, which is one of the large basins in Ardabil province was selected as a case study In this research, after introducing different methods for weighting and prioritizing effective factors in finding suitable locations for construction of underground dams, a new weighting method namely, weighting matrix that is based on statistics analysis and Queen function was applied along with the remote sensing (RS) methods and geographic information systems (GIS). The weighting matrix method is based on statistical analysis and equal weighting for all the factors in the study area, by preparing layers of slope, land use, geology, imaging layers of alluvium depth and water table level using the inverse distance interpolation method, and then incorporating the generated layers, the final layer is obtained. This layer provides the appropriate prioritization and location of underground dams at the level of 79, 260 hectares of the basin by combining layers that are prepared independently and with the same weight and in the form of homogeneous units. The standard classification method has been used for prioritization.

One criticism that has been leveled GCM models, large spatial scale is the simulated climate variables in which case for hydrological studies and water resources are not sufficiently accurate. So designing them through different methods of small scale. Then, using downscaled-exposed Output, these new models in hydrologic studies evaluated the effects of climate of the downscaling methods; statistical methods by the performance of most interest to hydrologists are quick and easy. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of climate change on a scale of SDSM station of the statistical model is used. The data used in this study included daily temperature and precipitation values synoptic station in Tehran, open data and analysis NCEP Output HadCM3 (data for third generation global climate model under A2 and B2) for the base period (1961-2001) respectively. Precipitation and temperature for three terms (2001-2031), (2032-2061) and (2062-2091) was predicted and compared with the base period. According to the statistical parameters, under the A2 and B2 scenarios for temperature and precipitation amounts, respectively: (RMSE = 1. 48, MAE = 4. 3, R2 = 0. 99 and Nash = 0. 86) and (RMSE =0. 127, MAE =0. 413, R2 =0. 99 and Nash =0. 99) was observed. The results showed that during 2031-2001, 2061-2032 and 2091-2062, the average rainfall respectively 0. 1, 0. 4 and 0. 1 mm compared to the baseline decreased and the average temperature of respectively 4. 9, 4. 7 and 4. 7 ° C over the period in the study, increases base station.