جستجوی مقالات مرتبط با کلیدواژه « integrated watershed management » در نشریات گروه « آبخیزداری، بیابان، محیط زیست، مرتع »

Management and planning have different levels, of which the strategy is the highest level and has a long-term approach to resource allocation and decision making. Comprehensive watershed management is one of the reliable and accepted management approaches of the world community, which is a coordinated management of physical, biological, social and economic systems. The SWOT model is one of the strategic planning models. Due to its structural features and extensive capabilities, this model can easily be used in the management of diverse natural and human systems, including watershed management. SWOT analysis identifies threats and opportunities in the external environment of a system and to recognize internal weaknesses and strengths of that system. The correct identification of the problems in the field is also one of the most important steps in implementing this approach. The SWOT model can be used in comprehensive watershed management due to strategic planning because of its flexibility and ability to understand cause and effect relationships.

One of the important problems in the process of implementing and maintaining watershed projects and natural resources is the lack of effective participation and cooperation of watershed residents. Based on this, it is necessary and inevitable to pay attention to the inhibiting factors and also to identify ways to strengthen the participation of local communities in the process of implementing watershed and natural resources projects. This research, was done with the aim of knowing the socio-economic characteristics of local communities, identifying indicators that are effective in reducing obstacles and increasing people's participation in the implementation of natural resources and watershed projects, knowing the expectations and needs of the local community and finally, scientific and technical solutions have been presented to increase the level of public participation in Arpachai pilot area of ​​Zanjan Province .

In this study, four influential indices, including social-cultural, economic, natural, and managerial, were identified and categorized with 40 sub-indices. Necessary information was collected through surveys, questionnaires, interviews, and multiple sessions with community members and local experts. The sample size was determined using the Cochran formula, and the collected data were analyzed using SPSS software. Also, to check the validity of the questionnaire from Cronbach's alpha, factor analysis was used in order to reduce and categorize the variables affecting people's non-participation in watershed management projects.

The results showed that six factors explain 64.4% of the variance of the dependent variable and the education and information variable at the local level was recognized as the most effective factor that explained 29.97% of the variance of the dependent variable. Following that, the factors of improving the income and livelihood of villagers with 19.24%, diversity of economic activities and improving performance with 18.93%, strengthening the local economy with 13.92%, management of watershed projects with 11.34% and natural resources management with 4.3% were placed in the second to sixth priority, respectively.

In general, it can be said that the lack of information and awareness of the local community about the positive economic, social, natural and technical aspects and benefits resulting from the implementation of natural resources and watershed management projects in the area of their living and production is one of the important obstacles in the lack of participation and failure to achieve the anticipated goals in the implementation of watershed and natural resources projects in the study area. Based on this, attention and emphasis on the issue of building trust and increasing the level of social trust in the General Administration of Natural Resources and Watershed Management plays a significant role in the process of implementation and success of projects.

The increase in population, greenhouse gases, temperature, and lack of an efficient management system affect the sustainability of watersheds and the emergence of significant problems in providing services in the watershed. Viability, contrary to livability, is an essential principle for restoring health and sustaining the sustainability of a watershed, for which a network between the dimensions and criteria related to viability should be considered. Concerning the measured dimensions of viability, most studies have investigated the ecological, economic, social, and infrastructure dimensions at the city and village scale. At the same time, there was no consensus about the criteria for explaining viability, and the examined criteria were basically in the category of areas of livability. Nonetheless, the concept of viability has yet to be considered to evaluate the system's ability to be in the range of resilience at the scale of the watershed. In this regard, the tensions in the watershed areas will be identified with a correct assessment and a complete understanding of the functioning of different watershed levels. In such a situation, by relying on resources and capacities, as well as learning how to deal with stress properly, it is possible to self-organize and restore the balance and stability of the watershed and ultimately improve the viability of the watershed and help improve the watershed’s viability by recognizing the measures priorities and designating the prevention approaches. In addition, this can be a helpful perspective for the executive directors to provide an appropriate managerial roadmap countrywide.

The present study was conducted to conceptualize and evaluate the health of the Asiabrood Watershed in Chalus Township, Mazandaran Province, Iran.

The existing regional data, including climatic, hydrologic, erosion, sedimentation, and economic and social data, were collected and analyzed. In addition, several field visits were also made to make a general assessment of the ecological, economic, and social situation of the region and to complete the information on the study watershed. Then, the watershed health was assessed using the conceptual model of pressure, state, and response at the sub-watershed scale. Accordingly, the pressure index was first investigated by analyzing the driving forces of human activities and climate change over the study watershed. Then, the current state of the natural environment and the watershed performance to the pressures was analyzed as the status index. Further, the response index of the Asiabrood Watershed was calculated as a criterion for expressing the degree of community response or different outcomes of the watershed to the changes and concerns imposed on the watershed system.

 The results showed that the total health index of the Asiabrood Watershed with respective and relative contributions of pressure, state, and response indices of 18, 39, and 43% and an overall health index of 0.50 has a moderate health condition.

Although the health status of the Asiabrood Watershed is in moderate condition, the health status of the study watershed may decline, and, of course, adverse responses are possible if appropriate management policies are not adopted.

Dust event is one of the natural events that occur widely in the world, especially in dry areas. One of the main and effective factors in the occurrence of this phenomenon is the geographical location and climatic conditions of the regions affected by this phenomenon. The purpose of this research is to analyze the cause-and-effect relationships of dust events in Hendijan region with the approach of the Driver-Pressure-Situation-Effect-Response (DPSIR) framework. 

The DPSIR process is an analysis based on the "cause-disability" relationship of factors for policy-making and management planning. The DPSIR framework is a systems thinking framework that assumes cause-and-effect relationships between environmental and socio-economic systems. This conceptual framework uses a cycle of causes and results for the proper integration of basic economic, social and environmental data and information, specifies the relationship between environmental processes and human factors, and also leads to an understanding of the relationship between policy levels and environmental studies. The trend of each component of DPSIR was also evaluated by applying quantitative criteria for the time period of 2007-2019. 

The results of the research showed that the total index of all DPSIR components has an upward trend for the studied period. The slope of the trend related to D, P, S, I and R components was equal to 0.06, 0.03, 0.02, 0.05 and 0.02, respectively. Although some responses were made to reduce the influence of others. The components of DPSIR have been adopted to improve the dust situation, but the research results and the process of changes showed that they were not sufficient and integrated. In this research, a variety of answers related to the components of the driving force, pressure, situation, and effects were identified. The results showed that dust concentration and dusty days in the region increased during the study period and more attention was paid to reactive responses and less focus on preventive responses. Also, paying attention to the response of increasing the efficiency of irrigation due to the high correlation between the state of dust concentration and pressure factors such as the amount of rainfall, soil moisture, and exploitation of water resources in the research area, special attention to the development of water extraction systems as one of the most important responses. Management issues due to the existence of negative and high correlation with the dust situation during the years of research, adequate and sustainable supply of water resources by reducing and minimizing the diversion dams downstream of the Kowsar and Ask dams due to the increase in dust concentration with the increase of flood diversion operations and construction Reservoir and diversion dams since 2009, Considering the water rights of wetlands in the region with the aim of preventing wetlands from drying up and creating a dust center, especially in the west of Hendijan city, and carefully choosing the appropriate plant species, as well as carrying out desertification operations (planting saplings, mulching, building windbreaks). With the ecological conditions of the region, due to the negative correlation between the desertification operation and the reduction of dust concentration since 2014, it can help to improve the dust situation in the research area. 

In this regard, it is recommended to respond to driving forces (D) and pressures (P) so that while improving the conditions and adverse effects caused by it, the drivers and pressures that create the current situation can also be controlled. Based on this, the incomplete implementation of the answers is another reason for not achieving management goals and making the situation and the number of dusty days more unfavorable. It is also suggested to implement the integrated watershed management program in Hendijan city through the development of a joint water, agriculture, and natural resources program upstream of the watershed in order to clarify the effective measures of the water production, distribution, and consumption chain in the upstream lands.

Today, watersheds are facing various environmental issues. Factors such as weak organization in government sectors, lack of appropriate management structures, disregard for factors threatening international peace and security as well as climate change, rights governing soil and water protection, set of laws governing forests and pastures, weakness in agricultural activities and not paying attention to the right of animals prevent watersheds from achieving sustainable development. On the other hand, the lack or defect in the laws related to environmental justice has aggravated these tensions. Therefore, the current research has been compiled by examining the laws related to environmental justice at the national and international levels, in order to identify the weak points in the laws, in order to estimate the needs of the people without harming the needs of future generations in a descriptive-analytical method. The results of the research showed that the only way to improve the disordered state of watersheds in the world is to spread the shade of empathy between different countries based on environmental protection through the amendment of laws and principled management based on maintaining respect for the environment and its elements. From the results, it is also recommended to establish activities related to sustainable development based on the common relationships of physical-social and cultural aspects of humans with other components of nature.

The goal of watershed management is the rational and optimal utilization and management of the environmental resources in watershed scale according to the Sustainable Development Goals. In recent decades, the term "integrated watershed management strategy" has been widely advocated by many in the scientific literature.. The management of watershed resources with an integrated approach, is made possible by paying attention to watershed sub-systems and their interactions, as well as considering active processes and cycles within the watershed system. The purpose of this research is to examine the institutional and organizational requirements of the integrated watershed management through conducting comparative studies and survey on global experiences. According to the findings of this investigation, countries such as Canada, UK, Thailand, Indonesia, Germany, Sri Lanka and Australia have a distinct ministry for environment and/or natural resources a part from a ministry of agriculture. In countries like France and Iran, departments for environment and natural resources are subordinate to other ministries. In the United States, the Environmental Protection Agency is independent from the federal government. Countries with an independent organization for natural resources and environment are more focused on watershed issues and management. In Iran, the Natural Resources and Watershed Management National Organization (NRWMNO) is subordinate to the Ministry of Agricultural Jihad. Whose main focus is to increase agricultural production? While the management of natural resources and watersheds requires a specialized, independent and dominant organizational structure, mainly focused on conservation and rehabilitation issues. Considering the contradiction in the main goals of the Ministry of Agricultural Jihad as a superordinate organization and NRWMNO as a subordinate organization, the independence of NRWMNO from the body of the Ministry of Agricultural Jihad needs to be considered and examined in depth, by gathering and analyzing the opinions of leading experts and specialists of the country.

In the beginning, unknown variables and the environment controlled the nature of human settlements. But, today, the uncontrolled expansion of human settlements is modifying the environment and seriously threatening the sustainability of the whole lands. In this regard, the present study examines the plans and objectives of Integrated Land Management (ILM) and Integrated Watershed Management (IWM) in order to select and introduce an appropriate planning model for planners and policy makers. ILM is a science that combines the knowledge of local communities, indigenous peoples and all people who benefit from the environment and also derived from the natural and social sciences. The advanced state of ILM is IWM, which has comprehensive view and focuses on analyzing the results in the long run. In fact, IWM is a new concept and a new approach to planning, development, water resources management and vegetation with special emphasis on economic, social and environmental issues that seek to create participatory solutions in these areas. The purpose of this approach and this solution is to create integration and coordination in the management of natural resources and social resources of the watersheds in the form of people-centered programs. The main difference between IWM and ILM is that IWM emphasizes watershed strategic planning, based on the knowledge of the watershed, action to definition the macro strategies of the watershed, and puts a variety of strategic plans and management responses to improve watershed health on the agenda of its strategic committee. Therefore, IWM eliminates the shortcomings and limitations of ILM and is introduced to programmers as a suitable planning model.

Watershed management in Iran requires a new attitude toward its management patterns. The implementation of existing sectoral policies in the country has increased the pressure on the quality and quantity of valuable natural resources. However, in the current situation, the country's watersheds, with their current management patterns, are still in unstable situation.The existing management challenges suggest the fact that watershed management is still facing a major crisis in Iran and has not been able to improve the health status of watersheds. Structural weakness of organizations, weakness of rules, lack of evaluation, monitoring and accurate monitoring can be the main root of these problems. Therefore, the main purpose of this paper is to address the necessary to conceptualize integrated watershed management approaches by collecting available documentation and findings. Then, the structure and administrative framework with appropriate strategies have been formulated based on identifying effective factors in the success and failure of managerial patterns. Changing the attitude from an island approach to an integrated approach in watershed management, increasing the internal and external cohesion of organizational structures, utilizing stakeholder participation-oriented management models and formulating relevant supporting laws are effective factors in the effective implementation of integrated watershed management. Increasing the sustainability, resilience and health of watersheds depends on the implementation of the principles of integrated watershed management.The achievements of this study can be a clear policy for managers and politicians in the country's natural resources.

Drought is one of the natural disasters related to climate and one of the most important threats to human survival leading to adverse effects on social, economic, and environmental sustainability. In this study, it has been tried to evaluate the changes in reliability, resilience, and vulnerability of the Chalous Watershed under the influence of drought in the period of 1982-2017. In this vein, rainfall data of nine stations were interpolated using invers distance squared method to the whole watershed. The SPI drought index was then determined through determining the mean and standard deviation of the data. To calculate Rel, Res and Vul indices, the mean value of SPI Index was used. By calculating the geometric mean value of these indicators, the general health status of the watershed was determined and quantified. The results showed that the SPI Index in this period varied between -1.43 and 2.25. Drought index had a similar pattern to that of rainfall with an increasing trend at the end of the period. The watershed health assessment also showed that the indicators of reliability, resilience, and vulnerability were found 0.5, from 0.23 to 0.62 and from 0.06 to 1, respectively. The geometric mean of these indices was also ranged between 0.19 and 0.58. The overall health condition of the Chalous Watershed based on the dynamics of drought index with a mean index of 0.45 was classified as “moderate”. The findings of the current research will play an important role in explaining the methods of adaptive management of the watershed.

Environmental challenges are increasing day by day which this is a result of the increasing human population and demand for natural resources. Mismanagement of natural resources causes instability in environmental indicators. Degradation of watersheds with soil erosion and sediment yield is one of the most important environmental issues in Iran. Therefore, it is necessary to prepare and complete the spatial information of the natural characteristics of the watersheds and their prioritization. Because it is used in comprehensive watershed management. The purpose of this study was to investigate the status of some indicators and prioritize sub- catchments in Karkheh watershed. So indices of sensitivity of rock units to erosion, modified fournier erosivity index, erosion intensity from EPM experimental model and sedimentation through logarithmic sediment delivery ratio and discharge data were extracted and analyzed. After calculating mentioned indices in the sub-cachtments of Karkheh watershed, the values of each indicator in the basin and sub basins were examined, standardized and compared and then sub- cachtments prioritization were performed. The clustering method was also used to group the sub- cachtments and the above mentioned indices and topographic indices. Investigation of the susceptibility of formations to erosion of Karkheh watershed showed that sensitive class to erosion is the most frequent in this basin (60 %). The largest similar category in sub- cachtments includes nine ones with codes2213, 2214, 2221, 2222, 2223, 2225, 2226, 2227 and 2228 and the coefficients of area and length of flow had the most similarity. The results of rainfall erosivity and average erosion also indicate that very high erosivity class and high erosion class have the largest area (49% and 52% respectively) in this basin which the average erosivity and erosion of the basin were 60.6 mm and 727 m3 / km, respectively. The results of the average ranking of the indicators of geological formation sensitivity, rainfall erosivity and erosion of each sub basin show that sub basins such as 2215 (Karkheh Bala) and 2224 (Khoramabad) are prioritized in terms of planning and practical measurments at the level of the basin at managerial levels and sub- cachtments such as 2211 (Karkheh Payab) and 2227 (Ab Aleshtar) are less priority than other sub- cachtments in the Karkheh watershed.

The present research aimed at presenting a new SWOT strategy for integrated watershed management of Asiabrood in Mazandaran Province. At first, the SWOT matrix and the tables identifying the strategic indicators of internal and external factors were formed and then internal and external evaluation matrices were analyzed. A new strategy used in the discussion of the weighting of SWOT strategies was based on the fact that the final value of each strategy was multiplied by the number of effective strengths and opportunities and the final results were analyzed based on these priorities. Based on analysis of strengths and weaknesses, nine strengths and eight weaknesses were identified. The suitable water quantity and quality with a weight of 0.444, low air temperature with a weight of 0.395, mineral water utilization with a weight of 0.288 and economic poverty with a weight of 0.493, respectively, were the most important strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. According to the internal-external factors evaluation matrix in the SWOT model, the strategy of increasing the sense of satisfaction of residents, based on the conventional method and the new strategy, gave the highest value. With a careful look, it can be concluded that strengthening the sense of satisfaction between residents happens when People problems in different sectors of livelihoods, including economic, social and cultural, have been considered more and, by presenting correct programs, have increased satisfaction and reduced migration to urban areas. In general, it can be concluded that due to the problems and solutions presented in this study, proper and applied planning should be used to compensate for the weaknesses and to strengthen the strengths as much as possible in the development of Asiabrood watershed.

Nowadays, natural disasters and human interventions are the main causes of problems at the watershed scale, hence, the management of such challenges is considered as one of the major problems. However, the present approaches for the management of the watershed resource do not appropriately handle the current issues. So that the scope and type of environmental issues are ever increasing and stand beyond the ecosystem tolerance. As communities strive for recover from disasters and move forward, resilient watersheds facilitate better management of natural systems against future hazards. Towards this, the resilience assessment approach has been proposed as a novel approach using existing potentials and pertinent definitions, indicators, and measurement patterns to strengthen multidimensional systems such as watersheds. Since the application of resilience analysis approach in dynamic and complex, it has not been conceptualized and reported until now in watershed systems. Accordingly, the present endeavor is an attempt to conceptualize the resilience of watersheds in order to provide a useful perspective for understanding management decisions and changes related to natural resources in the context of comprehensive watershed management.

Natural resources of Iran is critically facing various threats including climate change, droughts, pollution (water, soil and air) and land degradation induced by inappropriate land management, i.e. unsustainable development practices, particularly on sloping tracts in mountainous areas. The Hable-Roud Basin conditions are the same as those of the entire country without exception. Therefore, to overcome these maleficient activities, development of various management options seems inevitable. After drawing up a preliminary list of proposed management options for the Goursefid Sub-watershed of the Hable-Roud (river) Basin through participation of local communities and experts’ input, selection and prioritization of the options were modeled using the participatory approach and application of the multi-criteria decision making methods within the mDSS software. Ultimately, suitable locations for an implementation of the selected options were identified and positioned across the study area with the participation of representatives of the local communities and experts. The results indicated that the main category of “land management and planning” options were preferred using all of the group decision making methods. Moreover, “development of an integrated watershed/water resources management plan”, “development of landuse plan at different scales” and “identification and training of new job opportunities and alternative livelihoods” were ranked first to third, respectively. Therefore, more attention should be paid to land management and planning options to better administer the watershed.

Developing an understandable and comprehensive conceptual model for watershed health assessment is one of the main priorities of many various managerial and policy making projects in the world including the mega project on the integrated watershed management of Iran. Towards this, the present study as the pioneering research in the country has been conducted to customize the reliability, resilience and vulnerability (RelResVul) conceptual model based on hydrological data to assess watershed health. To this end, firstly the long-term data of discharge of the Shazand Watershed that located in Markazi Province was prepared and the flow duration curve was accordingly derived. Secondly, the appropriate thresholds of low and high flow discharges as prerequisites for watershed health assessment were applied to the RelResVul conceptual model. Hence, the reliability (Rel), resilience (Res) and vulnerability (Vul) indicators were calculated for four node years of 1986, 1998, 2008 and 2014. Finally, the general health state of the Shazand Watershed and its different sub-watersheds was zoned on the basis of two low and high flow discharge criteria through the geometric integrating of the mentioned indicators. The results showed that for the four study years respectively, 59, 53, 68 and 66 % of the watershed in terms of low flow discharge as well as 19, 22, 54 and 38 % of the Shazand Watershed in terms of high flow discharge were situated beyond relatively healthy state. The watershed health index assessment indicated the moderate and relatively healthy states with improving trend for low flow discharge criterion and moderate healthy state with constant trend for high flow discharge criterion. In addition, the results were verified the spatial changeability of watershed health state in different sub-watersheds for the study years.

Integrated watershed management and regeneralization of available information to ungauged basin needs to recognize homogeneous watersheds. The hydrologic similarity of watersheds is caused by the hydroclimate and physical behaviors. In present study, hydroclimate and physical indices were used for indicating the homogeneous sub-watersheds in Karkheh Watershed and then results were compared. Factor analysis to reduce in the dimension of variables was conducted, separately for climatic, hydrological and physical parameters. Finally, using Fuzzy c-means (FCM) and hierarchical clustering analysis (HCA) homogeneous sub- watersheds were indicated by hydro-climate and physical parameters. Factor analysis results showed that indices of CSDI (cold spell duration index), GSL (growing season length), RX5day (monthly maximum consecutive 5-day precipitation), TX90p (percentage of days when daily maximum temperature is greater than 90th percentile) and TMAXmean (mean of maximum temperature) of climate indices, and indices of percent of hydrologica group D and flood potential index of hydrologic indices were selected. Also indices of basin area, basin elongation, average length of drainage and total topography between the physical parameters were selected. Comparing the results of the FCM and HCA indicated that the optimal number of clusters is same, but the results of watershed classification are not same in each cluster of two ways. Classification by hydroclimate and physical indices highlights that 25 and 27 basins were classified similar, respectively in two methods of clustering. Clustering by hydroclimate parameters produced different results compared with physical parameters, so that the 17 and 19 sub-basins are in the same classes in the FCM and HCA, respectively. However, there is no preference to accept watershed classification by hydroclimate or physical parameters, thus a combination of hydroclimate and physical parameters were used for classification. Watershed classification by the combination of hydroclimate and physical parameters indicated that 33 sub-basins were classified similar in both FCM and HCA methods. Classification in Karkheh basins based on the combination of physical and hydroclimate parameters revealed that the northern areas are in group 3, central regions (from east to west) are in group 2 and southern areas are in group 1. Inherently, these basins are similar in each group and demand the same protection operations in view of watershed management.

In order to achieve sustainable development, planning an appropriate management program is essential. Watersheds are the main units of land management and the main objective of this paper is to review the history, current status and future management needs of these units in Iran. For this purpose, the concepts of watershed and watershed management were explained and organizational structure, activities and current approach to watershed management have been investigated. Four case studies of the approach and practices of watershed management in Iran and abroad were also mentioned (two internal samples and two external). The historic course of watershed management in Iran indicates that signs of changing approach are ongoing from a traditional mechanical to the systemic management approach. As a general conclusion for improving integrated management of watersheds in Iran, some suggestions were offered as follow: improving the current organizational structure of watershed management and establishing committees called watershed council, considering the scale of the watershed, applying a united and appropriate watershed management model, shifting the attitudes from technical engineering to managerial approaches toward the nature of watershed management, watershed participatory governance and establishing an unitary and coherent organizational structure.

Abstract: Human activities leading to landscape change and thus change the structure, composition and function of the watershed ecosystems. These changes face the watershed to many problems or impossibility of providing natural ecosystem services. Some of such activities including land change, tree cutting, mining and hunting leading to emerge destructive natural disasters such as fire or flood. These kinds of activities and changes undoubtedly affect the integrity of the watershed. In fact, watershed integrity is defined as the capacity of a watershed to support and maintain the full range of essential ecological processes and functions in providing the sustainability of biodiversity and of the watershed resources and services for society. Indeed, this concept is adapted from the concept of ecological integrity that is seriously discussed by ecologists. In the present paper therefore the emerging concept of integrity in the comprehensive and adaptive watershed management was introduced and comprehensive and necessary information on different indicators and approaches of ecological integrity evaluation was provided. Toward this, the watershed researchers and managers could use these approaches to elaborate a native comprehensive approach in order to watershed ecological integrity of the country.

Comprehensive watershed management programs need to take into account the sediment and related process in sediment management paradigm. Whilst, the dominant processes on sediment yield has not been considered in watershed scale yet. Accordingly, sediment connectivity is an emerging concept in sediment management that has been accounted in recent years to investigate the sediment transfer from different sections of watersheds. Sediment connectivity is defined as the integrated transfer of sediment across all possible sources to all potential sinks in a system over the continuum of detachment, transport and deposition processes. The structural connectivity is therefore a concept derived from sediment connectivity which investigates potential of sediment particles displacement across a watershed on the base of anatomy of watershed's system. Naturally, identifying sectors with similar sediment connectivity patterns support applying similar and integrated sediment control mitigation strategies. The present research was planned to investigate the structural sediment connectivity in Taham Watershed in Zanjan Province for year 2014. To calculate the structural sediment connectivity, the Digital Elevation Model (DEM) and C Factor layers were used and the results were assessed according to field observations and surveying in several times. The results of the validity of the structural sediment connectivity map showed there were acceptable agreement between Field Index of Connectivity (FIC) and Index of Connectivity (IC). In addition, IC map with respective max, min and mean values of 1.02, -8.24 and -5.95, showed 32 percent of the study area had a high structural sediment connectivity that generally have been dispersed in western parts of the study area. Regarding to rapid appraisal and being low cost of IC calculation as well as identification of primary sediment sources, the structural sediment connectivity is a very useful concept for sediment management of watersheds of Iran.