Assessing the Impacts of Climate Change and Human Activity on Water Resources, Case Study: Karun River

Climate change and human activities, including dams, are keywords in water resources management that directly affect water ‎exchanges between surface and groundwater resources. The purpose of this study is to determine the ‎contribution of human activities (dam construction) and climate change (hydrological drought) ‎on the water resources of the Karun River. For this purpose, the study area of Gotvand-Aghili was selected. By analyzing ‎the Iranian matrix, the effects of dam construction on water resources were determined. ‎The results showed that there are 6 and 4 negative effects ‎in the column and row respectively. However, the matrix shows that the consequence and impact of tourism development and ‎recreational activity and surface water quality are less than -3.1. Continuously, to determine the contribution of climate change in ‎water resources, hydrological and hydrogeological drought indices were calculated over ‎an 11-year statistical period. The results of comparing the electrical conductivity in the sampled points show a significant increase that was consistent with the ‎results of the Iranian matrix. Comparison of SDI and GRI indices shows that from ‎‎2012 to 2015, there was no hydrological and hydrogeological drought in the region, ‎and based on this, part of the aquifer decline can be considered as a result of the ‎construction of the Gotvand Olya Dam. ‎