فهرست مطالب behzad hessari

Due to limitations in renewable freshwater resources, proper management of resources and demands is one of the key factors for achieving sustainable management. This is a critical factor in achieving sustainable water management. This study aims to investigate the impact of government contractionary policies on the reduction of surface and groundwater rights in the Miandoab plain and quantitatively examining their impacts on groundwater resources. The quantitative modeling of groundwater in the Miandoab plain utilized data from 120 observation wells. Geological, soil layer, and recharge layers pertinent to the region were collected. Groundwater level changes from October 2010 to September 2016 were modeled and analyzed in both stable and unstable)transient) states using the MODFLOW code. The model calibration stages were performed based on adjusting the hydrodynamic parameters of the aquifer, such as hydraulic conductivity and recharge, for 50time steps from November 2010 (70% of the modeling period). The best fit between computational and observational values was achieved both manually and automatically. 30% of the data was used for model validation. The model’s sensitivity to the aquifer’s hydrodynamic coefficients was examined. Finally, various scenarios related to water allocation reduction policies of the region and their effects on groundwater behavior, such as reducing extraction and recharge by decreasing surface water entering the plain, were quantified. The results demonstrated that the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) was approximately 1 and 1.68 meters for the stable and unstable(transient) states, respectively. The hydraulic conductivity values within the aquifer ranged between 3.5 and 28 meters per day, and the specific yield values varied between 3 to 24 percent. The model exhibited the highest sensitivity to surface recharge and the least sensitivity to specific yield. The Pearson coefficient for the calibration and validation period of the unstable state exceeded 0.98, indicating a high degree of model accuracy. All effects of the government’s contractionary policies on reducing 40% of surface water and balancing the aquifer with the levels of natural aquifer recharge were implemented. Given that the average drop in groundwater level is approximately 0.1 meters per year, a scenario of reducing extraction from all operating wells has been applied to balance the aquifer. With a 5% reduction in extraction, the aquifer is projected to experience a half-meter increase in the static level. The Miandoab aquifer, due to the low slope of the plain, is sensitive and shows a part of the plain as a water ponding in reducing extraction at a high rate, hence any policy-making should be based on modeling. To improve the conditions of the Miandoab aquifer, one of the country’s most unique aquifers, suggestions have been made for changes in the cultivation pattern of agricultural products, monitoring of water extraction from operating wells, and examination of the impact of climate change and drought on groundwater resources in terms of quantity and quality. Various scenarios, including optimization and change of cultivation pattern, as well as the construction of drainage in areas where evaporation from the aquifer is high, should be evaluated to improve the aquifer situation.

Currently, numerous sub-basins located in the Urmia Lake Basin (ULB) are experiencing water shortages. Gadar River basin is one of the most important basins of the ULB in which proper water allocation and management are paramount of importance. A decision support system based on a water evaluation and planning system (WEAP) could be highly beneficial in water allocation plans at the basin scale. In this research, the WEAP-MABIA model has been used to analyze and simulate water supply and demand in the three major catchments of Gadar River basin. The year 2009 was chosen as the base year of modeling, all nodes of supply and resources were created, and the rainfall-runoff model was simulated. Then, the Gauss-Levenberg-Marquardt optimization algorithm, embedded in the PEST tool, is implemented for calibration. The efficiency of the model is proved by the Nash-Sutcliffe coefficient for the calibration and validation period, which is ranged from 0.68-0.87. Ultimately, several management strategies such as a slight increase in irrigation efficiency, fallow implementation, and cultivation of low-demanded were employed to investigate the sustainability of water resources in the Gadar River basin. The results revealed that simultaneous implementation of %10 fallow along with 5% increase in irrigation efficiency could enhance the water supply reliability, compare to status que, in Oshnaviyeh, Naqadeh and Hasanlu basins %12, %19, and %11 respectively. Hence, this scenario, with decreasing the unmet demand, would play a major role to ameliorate the water shortages in the study area.

Groundwater is one of the main sources of drinking and agricultural water in the Salmas Plain in northwest of the Lake Urmia basin. Recently, boron contamination was reported in the down-plain. Boron (B) is an essential micronutrient for human health and plant growth, however high concentration (more than 1.5 mg/l) of boron is very detrimental to agriculture and human health. The present study examined the major water bodies which possibly contribute to boron contamination by identifying the origin of boron contents in the study area. A total of 42 groundwater and surface water samples were collected. The spatial distribution of boron contents showed that contamination occurred mainly in the south where thermal and mineral springs are dominant. An anomalous concentration of boron (more than 400 mg/l) was found at Abgarm thermal springs which discharge directly into the surface waters. The contamination spread over the central and east areas. This is because contamination moves through the faults. The high concentration of boron in this region may be attributed to the rock-water interaction.

Saving, optimizing water consumption, and improving productivity and efficiency indicators in agricultural sector are important and necessary. Miandoab region is of particular importance as a model of reducing consumption in order to conserve real water for the restoration of Lake Urmia. This research was conducted to evaluate water consumption reduction scenarios at the farm level using AquaCrop plant model in Miandoab region. For this purpose, the information on farms related to the sustainable agriculture project of Iran's Wetlands Protection Plan in Miandoab region was used. The data from the first year (the crop year 2016-2017) and the second year (the crop year 2017-2018) were used for model calibration and validation, respectively. The evaluation of statistical indicators shows the accuracy and high ability of the model in simulating grain yield. After the calibration and validation of the model, the irrigation planning scenarios were analyzed and evaluated in the form of reducing irrigation depth by 10, 20, and 30% for the conditions of the second year. The results of field measurements in 2017-2018 showed that the average irrigation depth and the applied irrigation (Irrigation + effective precipitation) for wheat were 405.44 and 580.44 mm respectively and mean grain yield was 8340 kg/ha, then irrigation water productivity and applied irrigation productivity were 2.27 and 1.52 kg/ , respectively. Also, the results of the study of deficit irrigation scenarios showed that the S3 scenario (30% irrigation water reduction) will reduce only 10% crop yield and water productivity will increase from 1.53 to 1.72 kg/ . The values of water productivity indices were calculated using balance components and performance simulated by the model for each farm. In general, the results showed that it is possible to increase the grain yield of wheat and water productivity using AquaCrop model for proper and accurate irrigation planning and crop management improvement, in order to save and conserve water on a farm scale.

Flood is a natural disaster that once occur, could cause serious financial damage and widespread human losses. Conventional approaches to flood risk management are mostly resistance-based. However, a resilience-based approach, taking into account uncertainties and can play a very effective role in the resilience of human settlements against this critical risk. It is essential to combine these two approaches to manage flood uncertainty through decision-making frameworks, and to use multi-criteria decision tools that can consider perspectives, goals, practical options, and stakeholder evaluation criteria. Accordingly, in focused group discussions, a hybrid set of flood crisis management alternatives were extracted and divided into three stages; pre-crisis, crisis response and post-crisis. The weights of these options were then calculated using a combination of social network analysis approach and multi-criteria decision making, and top three alternatives of each category were presented and examined. The results showed that the resilience-based approach in flood risk management has been considered by experts in cases that indicate the movement of experts from relying solely on a resistance-based approach to an adaptive approach to consider uncertainties, especially the effects of climate change.

Groundwater as an important part of water resources in arid areas is under influence of human and climatic factors. By illustrating the trend and fluctuation of regional water quality temporarily and spatially, it can be managed more effectively. Traditional methods of point data analysis cannot be used alone with high reliability, therefore the use of GIS, Geostatistical methods, and clustering analysis are suitable ways to analyze regional hydro-climatological phenomena. Normal spatial variability and outlier points can be assessed using the analysis of spatial clusters that divide the data into homogeneous groups and hotspots. These analyses determine in what situations there are valuable high or low clustering effects. In this study, the hot spots of the groundwater salinity of Minadoab plain and the Zarrinehrood network have been investigated. For this purpose, the salinity(Ec) of 32 observation wells located in Zarrinehrood network in the period of 1381 to 1399 has been used. The G* and Moran tests were used to investigate the location of high-value points, hot spot clusters, and significant outlier values. Based on the results obtained from both analyzes, hotspots in the western and northwestern parts of the network have been located. The trend of salinity hot spot areas through time was surveyed by the Man-Kendal test and the results indicate that these areas are increasing in recent years which can be a warning about increasing pollutant levels, drought, and contractile policies for surface water management on the shores of Lake Urmia.

Urmia Lake has experienced a critical environmental condition in recent years. This paper discusses changes in various hydrological measures in the Urmia Lake Basin (ULB) and its tributaries. The Mann-Kendall test with Trend-Free Pre-Whitening )TFPW( approach was used to estimate the trend in annual time series (1978-2011) of average and peak values of discharge recorded in 65 and 55 stations of ULB, respectively. Accordingly, the Cumulative Sum (CUSUM) control chart test was used for change detection analysis and T-statistic to compare the discharge in two periods (before and after 1995 as the year in which the Urmia Lake water level started to decline). The results revealed that 55 stations (~86%) had a descending trend in recorded average values of discharge data. In 38 stations (~59%), this diminishing trend was significant at 95% confidence level. The trend of peak data recorded in 42 out of 55 stations was declining. This falling trend was significant at 95% confidence level in seven stations. The average value of T-statistic for all stations (2.8) represented a significant difference between discharge values in two periods at most of the studied stations. The CUSUM results indicated that in more than 50% of the stations, which recorded discharge series of 11 rivers, the existing jump was significant at 95% of confidence level. The trend of 0-1 m3 /s interval was ascending, but the trend of other discharge ranges (more than 1 m3 /s) was descending. The results of this study also revealed that the amount of peak and discharge volume entering the lake in 1998-2011 decreased in comparison with 1978-1997.

One of the semi-distributed models that has been considered by researchers in the last decade is the hydrological model of variable infiltration capacity (VIC). The study aim was evaluating the efficiency of VIC model in simulated runoff and flow of rivers in Urmia city overlooking Lake Urmia, including Nazlochyi, Rozeh Chay, Shahrchay and Barandozchay. ERA5 meteorological data was used to achieve this goal. The indices used in the present study to validate the rainfall input data include (R2, TRMSE, NSE). The results of satellite meteorological data surveys with observational data have acceptable results. More precisely, the probability index of POD detection in all stations in the region is above %80. The Khoy synoptic station in the north of the study area is more than %95. Also, the correlation between maximum and minimum temperature data is above %93. After forming the hydrological and mathematical model of the area, the calibration of the observed runoff of the sub-basins with the runoff simulated by the VIC model was investigated. The surveying showed that in all major rivers in the region, the NSE value was above %72 and the R2 coefficient of all basins was more than %64. Also, for validation between observational and simulated data, the maximum flow rate (2010-2000) was used and the results showed that the model was more accurate in simulating maximum runoff, so that the NSE coefficient in the Nazlochay basin was %80 and the coefficient R2 was %78 for daily observational data.

In recent years, due to the widespread use of remote sensing drones, the qualitative and quantitative monitoring of agricultural farms using this technology has also increased significantly. In this regard, many vegetation indices were introduced to study the plants specifications. It is understood that each method has different strength and capabilities which should be taken into account of consideration when pressing the drone images. In this research, the efficiency of four high frequently vegetation indices were evaluated using the drone spectral data for monitoring the corn field. Field experiments were carried out in the research farm of Urmia University in 2018. The research methodology was developed by evaluating the effect of different levels of irrigation and fertilization on the crop biomass and four spectral indices such as NDVI, GNDVI, SAVI and NDRE. The experimental design was considered in the form of complete randomized blocks with three levels of irrigation and fertilization application, including 100, 80 and 60% of irrigation water requirements and fertilizer requirements within the four evolution step. The imaging operation was designed and performed using an ebee+ fixed wing drone equipped with the Sequoia remote sensing sensor. After performing the required photogrammetric and preprocessing operations by Pix4Dmapper software, the images were used to calculate vegetation index layers. Finally, the effect of different irrigation and fertilization application levels on crop biomass and vegetation indices were evaluated using statistical analysis of variance in the SPSS software. The results indicated that the crop biomass was significantly affected by different levels of water and fertilizer usage, and no significant effect observed on NDVI and SAVI indices in response to water and fertilizer levels. In contrast, The SAVI index was significant to irrigation levels and the NDRE index was significant to irrigation and fertilizer levels.

Agricultural sector is the greatest user of water in Iran, and increase of the consumption efficiency is necessary by considering the limited water resources in the recent years. Hasanlu irrigation and drainage networks as a part of a larger project of Naghadeh plan is one of the country's largest projects in the field of development of pressurized irrigation systems. Hasanlu network supplies water to the systems of sprinklers, surface gravity irrigation, and hydroflums based on the available pressure head at the relevant sites. In this research, geographic information systems were used as a framework for storing, management, processing, analyzing and visualization of spatial information of Hasanlo project phase 1 to evaluate water management of this plan. For this purpose, the coefficient of uniformity and distribution uniformity in sprinkler irrigation calculation toolbox developed and added to GIS as an extension, to simulate and evaluate the single or multi riser uniformity tests. Also, the risers discharge and application pressure were recorded at the site during the operation of the project. Results indicated that the pressure of risers varied from 0.5 to 3.9 bar and average Christiansen’s coefficient of uniformity (CU) was under 50% that indicated poor water management in the farm level. Also the satisfaction of stakeholders was in medium level.

Groundwater resources have long been used by humans as a reliable alternative due to their higher reliability and lower fluctuations, and have declined quantitatively and qualitatively in recent decades due to over-harvesting. In this study, the potential of groundwater resources in Urmia Lake basin was studied using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method and hybrid model of fuzzy logic- Analytical Hierarchy Process. It is necessary to reduce the negative interaction between the lake and the surrounding groundwater resources as much as possible by managing the abstraction of groundwater and identifying the sensitive areas of the aquifers of this basin and identifying the harvestable areas. First, the effective layers in groundwater potential (layers of height, slope model, land use, river distance, river density, geology, precipitation, evaporation and groundwater level) were prepared by ArcGIS. The results of study showed that in the AHP and the combined model of fuzzy logic, about 18.9% and 25.33% of the region's surface have high potential and are suitable for drilling wells, respectively. Finally, the ROC curve was used to determine the accuracy of the final maps. The accuracy of the final maps prepared by the AHP method and fuzzy logic-AHP was 0.775 and 0.812, respectively, and Fuzzy logic-AHP method had better performance in groundwater potential finding than Analytical Hierarchy Process.

Ground water management is one of the most basic water management issues on basin level. In recent decades, natural and human factors have created critical conditions in aquifers of the country. In this research, the effects of development of pressurized irrigation systems on groundwater resources of Ahar plain have been investigated with WEAP software during 16 years. After calibration and validation of the model, the present situation of the region was simulated. The simulation results showed that development of pressurized irrigation systems has a significant change in the storage volume of aquifer and caused a drop in groundwater level of the Ahar plain. In order to analyze of conditions and to demonstrate of changes effect in different conditions and prediction for the future, the general circulation models of CGCM3 and HadCM3 were developed under A1B, A2 and B1 emission scenarios. The scenarios results showed that the average annual volume of aquifer increased 25% in the lack of pressurized irrigation development condition in the region. If pressure irrigation did not develop in the region, and instead of, surface irrigation was carried out, Surface runoff and agricultural return flow were more than the current situation in the basin. Also, the future climate scenario showed that with continuing the current situation in the future, the average annual volume of the aquifer will be reduced by 33%, that it will be caused to groundwater destroyed in the future. So pressurized irrigation systems not only do not save water but also lead to destruction of groundwater aquifers in the country. The results of this study emphasize the necessity of basin management studies to adopt proper management strategies, especially in critical areas.

Several factors are affecting the flood routing process, each of which has a particular weight of attenuation of flood peaks through the spillway. This paper identifies these factors and analyzes the factors affecting the sensitivity of peak discharge estimation of Sardasht dam and the effects of these factors and their sensitivity were determined through hydrograph routing from the basin and the reservoir. At the first stage, after the construction of the basin model with full elements in Hec-Hms, one available storm event with corresponding runoff, simulated then affecting parameters in the different subbasins were calibrated. In the second stage, the probable maximum precipitation (PMP) hyetograph converted to probable maximum flood (PMF) and routed in the reservoir. At the last stage, the sensitivity of CN, amount of rainfall design, lag time of channel and lag time of basin and also flood routing of the reservoir were investigated. The results show that the design flood is most sensitive to the amount of precipitation as with 30% change in precipitation, CN and channel lag time the flooding amount changed linearly about 40%, 25%, and 8%, respectively, but with changing ±30% of basin lag time the flood peak changed non-linearly by 5 in over estimating and 16% in the underestimating.

River training, flood control projects and every changing of river geometry will change the morphology conditions of the river and hydraulic characteristics of the flow in the river. In fact, the goal of river training plans can be found on the basis of the initial energy equilibrium of the river. In this study, the impact of river training on the hydrodynamic conditions of Zarrineh River in conjunction with Shahindezh city in different scenarios were investigated. Zarrineh River training project modeling, as a general objective, is the use of hydraulic simulations to create a river water surface based on new physical, civil, and hydrological properties of a given reach. The motivations for conducting such simulations are flood plain extent mapping based on current and new scenarios and the determination of water level along the study river reach. The objective of this project is to create maps before and after a new river training plan, all within the GIS and Autocad environment with georefrenced origin. Study of Zarrineh river project requires a thorough evaluation of the possible impacts that it may have, both upstream and downstream from the Vahdat Bridge on Zarineh River. Prediction of the operation, maintenance, and repair or replacement of the bridge, requirements of existing and proposed projects are other roles that river hydraulics simulations play in the planning and design processes. Zarineh River is a very wild river and every civil project highly needed to be evaluated from different aspects especially new geomorphological conditions. New liberalized areas beside the river for each scenario should be determined and evaluated for new land use utilizing particularly for Eco-Tourism usages. Sharifi and Pernoun (2017 p. 59) emphasized that the dynamical power of the river in the upstream and flow forces reduction in the downstream  have a significant effect in the geometry formation of the rivers. Niranjan et al., (2010) showed that the MIKE11HD model has been able to accurately estimate and simulate water level in Berahmani river. The simulated river surface profile from MIKE11HD was used to simulate protective structures behavior in the river. The performance of the MIKE11 model in the simulation of hydrologic-hydrodynamic processes of rivers were confirmed in other studies such as Guang et al. (2017), Uleke et al. (2017), Tran et al. (2018) and Kha et al. (2018).

MIKE11 was selected to simulate current and selected new river training scenarios that iteratively solves a one-dimensional energy balance to produce water elevations based on river geometry, channel roughness, flow rate and boundary conditions. MIKE11, developed by DHI, is a software package for simulating flows in rivers. The river geometry is provided in the form of channel cross-sections at regular intervals along the direction of flow. The number of cross sections that are taken varies with study requirements and stream characteristics. About 1 km reach of the upstream and downstream of existing Vahdat bridge with 14 cross sections under current situation (without bridges and without training), the bridge with 120 meters without training, the bridge with 120 m, 200 m and 300 m with bed and banks training. For the current and scenarios it is needed to predict stage, discharge, and velocity as functions of time anywhere on a river in different return periods such as 25 yr. To measure cross-sectional coordinates, previous topographic maps generated from field surveys performed with land surveying instruments were used. All  information to set up the Mike model, including input data files, simulation period, time step and the name of result files and also initial and boundary conditions have been determined and defined. Flow hydrographs for the project at the bridge location for all scenarios, extracted from hydraulically simulations from Mike11. For Hydrograph prediction the Saint-Venant approach with Finite Element method and Six-Point Algorithm of Abbott used to discretized temporal and spatial elements.

 Zarrineh river project consists of Vahdat Bridge that should be modelled and finally it should be cover reliability of new area liberalization without any impact to users of Shahindezh such as Municipality, regional water authority, Environmental protection agency and Ministry of Roads and City affairs. In river training scenario with widening bridge to 300 m, in addition of a liberalization of 90 ha areas on both sides of river banks, water level will be decreased about 65 cm and maximum flow capacity will be increased to 115000 m3. The calibration results indicate that the estimated error rate of flow volume (REV) and the relative error in the peak (REQP) for training scenario are 0.197 and 1.792% respectively that corresponding to current condition about 0.068 and 2.82 percent .This figures shows good agreement between modeled and observed values. Vahdat Bridge with 120 lengths with 1200 m3/sec (25 yr return flow) will overflow to adjacent areas.  The modelling results show the high potential of river training on the flood transmitting and flood routing and also, the accuracy of the simulation of unsteady flow is one dimensional for the desired range by the MIKE11 mathematical model.

The river training projects should be modelled, controlled, evaluated for overflow problem from sidewalls and also river bed and banks should be controlled that is not affected by water score problem. For secure hydrograph transmitting in the reach of Zarineh River and Shahindezh city conjunction, the 300-meter bridge widening scenario is selected and the executive maps and detailed plans for the river training, bridge with a width of 300 meters, sidewalls and end sill structure (river bed stabilizing structure for preventing score)  were provided.

Considering the importance of Lake Urmia, the purpose of this research is to survive the human activates on the trend of surface water and groundwater changes in the Urmia plain. For this purpose, the changes in input and output discharge, aquifer drainage and land use changes in the Urmia Plain were studied on the basis of nine hydrometric stations data (during 1973-1903) and information of 74 piezometers and using satellite images. The test used for trend analysis was Mann-Kendall nonparametric test with considering the effect of autocorrelation. According to the results, the trend of input discharge from the Nazlou-Chay, Rouzh-Chay and Barandoz-Chay sub-basins to the Urmia Plain was decreasing and the negative trend of outlet discharge related to the Rouzh-Chay, Shahr-Chay and Barandoz-Chay sub-basins was significant at 95% confidence level. Comparison of the results the difference between discharge average during after and before 1995 (the year which in it the lake begins to dry) showed that at all stations except Ghassemlou, there is a significant difference between average discharge during these two periods. The value of the statistic (Z = -2.18) indicates a significant decreasing trend at 95% confidence level for the drainage volume of the aquifer reservoir. The results of this study showed that discharge to Lake Urmia in all seasons had a decreasing trend during the studied period and serious actions should be done to manage water resources in the region.

Providing safe and sanitary drinking water is one of the goals of moving toward sustainable development, and dealing with aridity crisis is an important issue. Groundwater supplies 99% of the total available fresh water. The increasing need for more and more water resources and the finitude of water resources have led to the extraction of unauthorized withdrawals from groundwater resources. The first step toward achieving management goals and operating correctly is studying and recognizing the groundwater resources system. For studding groundwater behavior, one of the new methods is studying mathematical and computer models of groundwater that, in its turn, is an advanced and complete management tool. In this regard, a groundwater computer model called Groundwater Modelling System(GMS) was used to simulate the aquifer which is able to simulate stable and unstable conditions and has a wide variety of hydrogeological properties. It simulates groundwater flow using finite difference method(FDM). A wide range of information and a complete description of the flow system including hydraulic parameters, boundary conditions, and the pressure and stress applied to the flow are essential for the effective use of the GMS. The purpose of this study is to investigate the interactions between Lake Urmia water level changes and Meghitalu aquifer groundwater level changes in a distributed system.

Meghitalu aquifer is located in north of Urmia in Kahriz region that has interaction with Urmia lake. In order to simulate groundwater flow in Meghitalu basin and aquifer, MODFLOW module were used in the GMS model. According to geological and hydrogeological studies, the target aquifer was considered as an unconfined aquifer. The basin was considered by a three-dimensional mesh consisting 2491 cells with variable sizes between 25 and 150 square meters in 1 layer. The amount of the aquifer parameters were determined based on the geological and meteorology and geo-electrical studies and logs of the wells in the area. The location of the aquifer, the surface layers of the ground, bedrock, hydraulic conductivity, evaporation depth and supply and drain resources were procured using GIS software, and then they were added to the model after being processed.Considering that the changes in Urmia Lake water level are influencing factors on aquifer recharge and discharge, the years 1995-1996 as the highest water level, 2001-2002 as the normal condition of water level, and 2009-2010 as the lowest level were selected. The average water level of the Lake during 1965 to 2010 was 1274 meters. After implementing the model controller and ensuring that the conceptual model is unmatched by any error, the model ran in both stable condition that is based on the average annual data and in the unstable condition that is based on daily data for the length of the year.

The results of the simulation for the years 2001-2002 show that the lake recharge the aquifer in the stable condition, and rainfall and evaporation are not able to feed the aquifer; the range of hydraulic head changes in the aquifer cells is between 1254-1243 m. In unstable condition at the beginning of the year, all cells of the aquifer are wet and groundwater level are above the lake level and after 9 months of water year, status of drainage changes and the Lake starts to recharge the aquifer . The range of hydraulic head reduced from 1273 - 1412 meters in the first time step (October) to 1273-1241 meters in the last time step (September). Simulation for the years 1995-1996 and 2009-2010 demonstrated the influence of lake level on the recharging and discharging of the aquifer. The range of hydraulic head in the aquifer wet cells is reduced from 1255-1301 meter in the years 1995-1996 to 1257-1271 meter in the years 2009-2010 at the end of the simulation period . In all model implementation scenarios, wet cells with higher hydraulic head are in areas with high hydraulic conductivity. Overall, despite the lack of information in the study area, the results of the simulation were successful and the effects of tension changes were well displayed. When the groundwater level is lower than the level of Urmia Lake, the lake will feed the aquifer and the feeding will continue until the seawater is at the same level as the groundwater.

In recent years with developing geographic information systems tools, modeling and simulating methods has been developed quickly. Availability of accurate base maps is the basis of the cell sizes determination and preparing digital hydrologic models. Removing errors and minimizing of uncertainty factors in the digital models play the main role in improving the accuracy of the maps. The main purpose of this research is to produce GIS layers for Shaharchi river basin located in West Azerbaijan, according to the base maps of Iran and evaluating the accuracy of these maps. Physiographic parameters and hypsometric charts of the Shaharchai basin were estimated and drawn. Results showed that with increasing cell sizes, average, maximum and standard deviation of the slope decreased. The maximum slope is more dependent on cell sizes than the average and standard deviation. To calculate the watershed slope, at a scale of 1: 25000, a cell size of 15 meters and a scale of 1: 50000, a cell size of 40 meters and a scale of 1: 250,000, 90-meter cell size were distinguished as optimized cell sizes. After calculating the actual average slope of river profile and comparing with the slope amounts of each cell sizes and map scales it is concluded that for preparing river profiles the best cell size is 15 meters for 1:25000 map scale. The percent error of pits in the scale of 1:25000, increased slowly in the cell sizes smaller than 15 meters.

The purpose of this study was to compare the different baseflow extraction methods based on the five hydrometric stations data during 2001-2011 located in the west of Lake Urmia. For this purpose, Fixed Interval Method, Sliding Interval Method, Local Minimum, Lyne and Hollick algorithm with four numerical filters and Eckhardt algorithm with two numerical filters were used. Then, baseflow index values were analyzed by the absolute mean error, flow correlation and root mean squares. The results revealed that the average annual index for all stations in the whole period fluctuated between 74.5 and 89.8. So, this value is indicating the high contribution of subsurface flow in supplying of the river flow in the study region. As a result, the method of Lyne and Hollick algorithm with a numerical filter of 0.9 and, besides it, Eckhart with the filter of 0.9 is the most suitable methods and can be useful in the absence of tracing with chemicals to extract the base flow in the study area. After choosing the best method, the base flow at the Band, Babaroud and Tapik stations were calculated using longterm flow data and dam and agricultural consumptions impact on baseflow also discussed. The annual trend of Band station's baseflow was then evaluated using Mann-Kendall test. The results of the trend analysis indicate that the baseflow of this station has a severe downward trend.

River training, flood control projects, and every change of river geometry will change the morphological conditions of a river and the hydraulic characteristics and flow. In fact, the goal of river training plans can be found on the basis of the initial energy equilibrium of the river. In this study, the impact of river training on the hydrodynamic conditions of the Zarrineh River in conjunction with Shahindezh city in different scenarios were investigated. The Zarrineh River training project modeling, as a general objective, is the use of hydraulic simulations to create a river water surface based on new physical, civil, and hydrological properties of a given reach. The motivations for conducting such simulations are flood plain extent mapping based on current and new scenarios and the determination of water level along the study river reach. The purpose of this project was to create maps before and after a new river training plan, all within the GIS and Autocad environment with a georefrenced origin. Study of the Zarrineh River project requires a thorough evaluation of the possible impacts that it may have on the Zarineh River, both upstream and downstream from the Vahdat Bridge. The prediction of the operation, maintenance, and repair or replacement of the bridge, requirements of existing and proposed projects are other roles that river hydraulics simulations play in the planning and design processes. The Zarineh River is a very wild river and every civil project is needed to be evaluated from different aspects, especially from new geomorphological conditions. New liberalized areas beside the river for each scenario should be determined and evaluated for new land use utilizing particularly for Eco-Tourism usagesand repair or replacement of the bridge, requirements of existing and proposed projects are other roles that river hydraulics simulations play in the planning and design processes. The Zarineh River is a very wild river and every civil project is needed to be evaluated from different aspects, especially from new geomorphological conditions. New liberalized areas beside the river for each scenario should be determined and evaluated for new land use utilizing particularly for Eco-Tourism usages.  MIKE11 was selected to simulate current and selected new river training scenarios that iteratively solve a one-dimensional energy balance to produce water elevations based on river geometry, channel roughness, flow rate, and boundary conditions. MIKE11, developed by DHI, is a software package for simulating flows in rivers. The river geometry is provided in the form of channel cross-sections at regular intervals along the direction of flow. The number of cross sections that are taken varies with study requirements and stream characteristics.  About 1 km reach of the upstream and downstream includes Vahdat bridge with 14 cross sections under current situation (without bridges and without training), the bridge with 120 meters without training, the bridge with 120 m, 200 m and 300 m with bed and banks training.  For the current scenarios, it is needed to predict stage, discharge, and velocity as functions of time anywhere on a river in different return periods such as 25 yr. To measure cross-sectional coordinates, previous topographic maps generated from field surveys performed with land surveying instruments were used. All information to set up the Mike model, including input data files, simulation period, time step and the name of result files and also initial and boundary conditions were determined and defined.  Flow hydrographs for the project at the bridge location for all scenarios were extracted from hydraulical simulations Mike11. For Hydrograph prediction, the Saint-Venant approach with Finite Element method and Six-Point Algorithm of Abbott were used to discretize temporal and spatial elements. The Zarrineh River project consists of Vahdat Bridge that should be modelled and it should be checked for the reliability of new area liberalization without any impact on users of Shahindezh such as municipality, regional water authority, environmental protection agency and ministry of roads and city affairs. In river training scenarios with widening bridge to 300 m, in addition to the liberalization of 90 ha areas on both sides of river banks, the water level increased about 65 cm and the maximum flow capacity increased to 115000 m3. The calibration results indicated that the estimated error rate of flow volume (REV) and the relative error in the peak (REQP) for training scenario were respectively 0.197 and 1.792%, corresponding to the current condition which were about 0.068 and 2.82 percent. The figures showed a good agreement between modeled and observed values. Vahdat Bridge with 120 lengths and 1200 m3/sec (25 yr return flow) will overflow to adjacent areas.  The modelling results showed the high potential of the river training for the flood transmission and flood routing. Also, the accuracy of the simulation of unsteady flow is one dimensional for the desired range by the MIKE11 mathematical model. The rivertraining projects should be modelled, controlled, and evaluated for overflow problem from sidewalls. In addition, river bed and banks should be controlled so that they are not affected by water score problem.  For secure hydrograph transmission in the reach of the Zarineh River and Shahindezh city conjunction, the 300 m bridge widening scenario was selected and the executive maps and detailed plans for the river training, bridge with a width of 300 meters, sidewalls and end sill structure (river bed stabilizing structure for preventing score) were provided.

Due to the importance of trend study of rivers discharges, in this paper, the trend of average discharge variations of the rivers in Urmia Lake basin was analyzed. Investigating the role of discharge changes, entering to the lake on lake’s surface reduction was another goal of this study. For this purpose, the recorded data of 65 hydrometric stations (during 1978-2011) were analyzed. Non-parametric Mann-Kendall method considering autocorrelation effect was used for trend analysis in this paper. On the basis of the obtained results, discharge time series was significant at 95% confidence level in more than half of the stations (41 stations) having autocorrelation with 1-year lag. Also, more than half of the stations (58 stations) had a descending trend and this trend was significant at 95% confidence level in 38 stations. The average volume of surface water entering the lake have been reached from 4654 MCM in years before 1995 (the starting year of drying) to 2134 MCM in years after 1995. The time series of surface water entering the Urmia Lake had a decreasing trend and on the basis of t-student, the difference between average discharges during the two periods (after and before 1995) was significant at 95% confidence level. The results of this study shows a reduction in the surface waters across the whole basin area discharging to the Urmia Lake during the years after 1995 and the role of this phenomenon on the lake’s water level fall. This emphasizes that the proper management of water resources in different consumption sectors including agriculture should be considered due to climatological governing situations.

Regards of water scarcity, inappropriate distribution of precipitation, implementation and development of projects in water resource fields such as dam construction and inter-basin water convenience is unavoidable. For prevention of long-term negative environmental impacts of such projects, and for water allocation acts, it is necessary to studyhydrological and ecological demands of river as an "environmental water demand". The "environmental water demand" usually is defined as a set of discharges which are determined by the magnitudes, frequencies, occurrences and given flows, but the employed methods in this research calculate environmental flows in the form of mean annual runoff (MAR). These flows which provide appropriate conditions for conservation of aquatic life and ecosystem processes for sustainability goal, are called "environmental flows". This article aimed to study the "environmental demand" estimation for Mahabad-chi River. Mahabad-chai sub basin is located in southwest of Urmia lake and in terms of scope is 4th sub basin of Urmia lake basin. Its geographic area is among of 44˚ 45΄ to 45˚ 56΄ eastern longitude and 36˚ 22΄ to 37˚ 10΄ northern latitude and is composed of two main branches “BYTAS & KOWTER”. The ecological river demand was estimated and compared by four hydrological methods (Tenant, Tessman, FDC-shifting and DRM), then suitable method was introduced. The ecological demand of Mahabad-chai river is estimated and compared by four hydrological methods, FDC-shifting method biological class C, because of considering ecological specifications of the river, was chosen and the environmental demand of Mahabad-chi River was estimated to 0.35 cms in BYTAS station and 1.17 cms in KOWTER station. The annually average flow was 1.73 and 6.17 cms in BYTAS and KOWTER hydrometric station respectively. Based on the results, the suggested flow of FDC-shifting method at C class is recommended as minimum environmental flow for Mahabad-chai river, because this method needs the less data, doing early and rapid assessment in data and simulating current hydrological conditions by considering desirable ecological conditions, whereas other methods can’t do this action. Moderated class C (relatively modified) consider about %20 MAR to %30 MAR as environmental flow, that in this condition basic function of ecosystem has not changed and more species is survived. Also moderated class C has good match with regime of flow at several months and is acceptable in area in terms of managerial, agricultural uses, drinking and etc.
The suggested method in this research is not the ultimate solution for environmental problems of Mahabad-chai River. Lack of comprehensive required ecological information at river’s ecosystem studies, cause to estimating eco-hydrology by less coefficient of confidence.

Urmia Lake, as a hyper saline and very shallow lake, located in the northwest of Iran, has had reduced water level of about 40 centimeters each year over the past two decades and is drying, which this problem has led to social and environmental consequences. In this research, the indexes of environmental and agricultural sustainability were evaluated using performance criteria influenced by climate change and water management strategies for the Zerrinehrud and Siminehrud river basins as the largest sub-basin of Urmia Lake Basin. Modeling of hydrologic behavior of these basins was performed by WEAP21 model. The LARS-WG downscaling model was used to simulate climate change.Then the model was analyzed for three future emission scenarios (A2, A1B and B1), for the period 2015-2040, and five water management scenarios: (1) keeping the existing situation (S0), (2) crop pattern change (S1), (3) improving the conveyance and distribution efficiency (S2), (4) combining the improvement of conveyance and distribution efficiency with improving the application efficiency using modern technology (S3), and (5) the combination of crop pattern change with the improvement of total irrigation efficiency (S4). The results showed that the highest values of indices ​​of environmental sustainability and agricultural sustainability were related to the scenario of combining the crop pattern change with improving the total irrigation efficiency under the B1 emission scenario (B1S4). In this scenario, the average annual flow of water entering the Urmia Lake from Zarrinehrud and Siminehrud river basins will be equal to 1292 and 351 MCM per year, and as a result, the environmental flow requirements of the lake will be supplied from these basins.

Iran and accordingly the study area due to placing on the dry belt region of the world are always faced with the drought phenomenon and shortage of rainfall. Accordingly, the efficient use of water and the management of these areas are integral component requirements of such areas. Precipitation pattern in arid areas occurs as storms with the high intensity usually in short time and causing huge runoff in the basin that will carry valuable surface soil and decreasing water infiltration opportunity in the soil. Different techniques of rainwater harvesting from natural lands, improved micro-catchments or agricultural micro-basins will lead to developing sustainable economical agriculture and store runoff into soils, dams, terraces, ponds, ditches, and reservoirs. The study area with 470 mm rainfall and runoff coefficient of 0.26 has the high potential of water harvesting at the basin scale. Previous studies show that lower gammas fuzzy logic values target macro-catchment systems of water harvesting well, but in micro-catchment systems with using fuzzy operators are less researched.
In this research for finding suitable areas for water harvesting, 3 systems including semi-circular bunds, contour furrow, and bench terrace with using GIS in Nazlu basin with 1507 km2 area, of west Azarbijan were investigated. Watershed factors such as climate, physiographic and hydrological factors, six important layers of precipitation, slope, land use, hydrologic soil groups, and drainage and soil depth were selected. For intersecting and making layers dimensionless, Fuzzy logic with trapezoidal membership function and Fuzzy logic with the analytical hierarchical process (AHP) were used for the quantitative and qualitative variables respectively. AND for combining of layers Boolean AND, Boolean OR, Fuzzy algebraic Product, Fuzzy algebraic sum, Fuzzy gamma of 0.1 to 0.9 methods were examined.
The “measure of similarity” is used for comparisons of filed observed and combination outputs. The results show for the crescent bankette and the Gamma-0.9 Fuzzy, this figure equals 0.824 and for counter furrow, equals 0.906. These figures indicate that fuzzy gamma 0.9 has better suitability than other method and also Boolean logic model do not show suitable results. Similarity index in fuzzy logic increases up to 0.9 gamma and returns below 0.9. High Gamma for site selection of Micro-catchment water harvesting systems shows better results. The 30% of the basin is suitable for semi-circular bunds, the 11.5% for contour furrow and 6.3% for bench terrace.
The results show that for determining the locations suitable to micro-catchment water harvesting methods, Boolean methods are less useful due to low precision and the usage of newer methods of gamma fuzzy logic should be considered, instead.

In the arid and semi-arid regions, agriculture has led to decline in water levels in major lakes such as the Aral Sea, Urmia, Hamoun and Bakhtegan lakes. The major objective of the present study was to evaluate the environmental and agricultural sustainability of Zarrinehrud and Siminehrud river basins as the largest sub-basin of Urmia Lake basin. The sustainability index was calculated using reliability, resilience, and vulnerability performance criteria. In this study, the irrigation water deficit (IWD) index was calculated for the irrigation districts. Irrigation demand and irrigation water deficit indices were calculated using WEAP21 model. Results showed that the environmental sustainability of Zarrinehrud and Siminehrud river basins to supply the environmental flow requirements of the Urmia Lake during the studied period was 0.39 and 0.41 respectively. Nevertheless, the agricultural sustainability index of Zarrinehrud and Siminehrud river basins was 0.64 and 0.74 respectively. Moreover, the amount of IWD index showed that water demand for all irrigation districts has not been fully met. The above results indicated that the Zarrinehrud and Siminehrud river basins were unstable both in terms of the environment and agriculture. Whereas during the study, the changes in land under cultivation in most irrigation districts had an increasing trend, ttherefore, it can be concluded that agricultural development and the addition of water harvests for agricultural use have been the main cause of environmental and agricultural instability.

Planning, designing and managing water resources systems today unavoidably include impact prediction. Impact prediction includes modelling. In the present study the hydrological model WEAP21 was calibrated and validated on the Zarrineh Rud and Simineh Rud Basins. Zarrineh Rud and Simineh Rud rivers with a discharge potential of 3 billion m3 per year have a 50% portion in Urmia Lake Basin. In the present study the soil moisture method was used for the hydrological simulation of model WEAP21. An 11-year statistical period (from 1994-95 to 2004-05) was planned for calibrating the model. The analysis of results of model simulation using the statistical indices showed that coefficient of determination, Nash-Sutcliffe coefficient and index of agreement for different stations were as follows, respectively: Inflow to Boukan dam hydrometry station: 0.9, 0.83, and 0.95; Nezam Abad hydrometry station: 0.75, 0.74, and 0.92; Dashband hydrometry station: 0.82, 0.81, and 0.95 and Miyandoab bridge hydrometry station: 0.75, 0.75, and 0.92. A nine-year period (from 2005-06 to 2013-14) was planned for validating the model. The analysis of results showed that coefficient of determination, Nash-Sutcliffe coefficient and index of agreement for different stations were as follows, respectively: Inflow to Boukan dam hydrometry station: 0.88, 0.85, and 0.96; Nezam Abad hydrometry station: 0.72, 0.7, and 0.91; Dashband hydrometry station: 0.86, 0.85, and 0.96; Miyandoab Bridge hydrometry station: 0.8, 0.78, and 0.93. Generally speaking, the results of simulation showed that the model had a good performance.