Determination of the Catchment Area and the Capture Zone of Chelleh Khanehe Olya Spring (Soufiyan)

Determining the capture zone of water resources is a strategic approach proposed at the national level of water resources management in Iran. One of the important actions for this purpose is protection of karst water resources, which are considered one of the vital sources for supplying water due to the widespread karst formations in this country and the limitation of groundwater resources in alluvial aquifers. Generally, water flows out through the springs in the karst system. The land area where the water contributes to the spring is called the spring's capture zone. The study and analysis of the recession curve of the springs, the area extending from a discharge peak to the base of the next rise, along with the other physical characteristics of springs such as electrical conductivity is a useful indicator for getting knowledge about the condition of the catchment area and other properties of the heterogeneous karst terrain. In estimating the water budget, unlike the non-karst areas where the surface runoff or the outflow is considered the main factor in the estimated water budget, the recharge component is an important factor in the karst domain. The difference between hydrogeological and hydrological (topographic) catchments is one of the obvious features in karst landscapes. The identification of these basins or their boundaries is possible by combining geology and topography information. Soufiyan Cement Company in the vicinity of Chelleh Khanehe Olya spring located in Moro Mountain is associated with the creating social problems due to the expansion of mining activities and the negative impact on spring water in this area. Therefore, this study aims to determine the catchment area and the capture zone of the Chelleh Khanehe Olya spring by determining the protective boundary for the extraction of limes by the Soufiyan cement factory to prevent the negative impact of this factory on the spring.

In this research, the hydrograph of the recession curve related to a rainfall event has been analyzed by taking into account the mean monthly discharge rate of spring to determine the sub-regimes of diffuse and conduit flow by employing the following equation:Qt=Q0e-αt (1)Where Qt is the discharge rate at time t, Qo reveals the discharge at the initial time, and α is a recession coefficient.In addition, The Qmax/Qmin ratio has been calculated to estimate the flow type and the degree of karstification in the catchment area.In the next step, to determine the Chelleh Khanehe Olya spring catchment area and its capture zone, spring hydrogeological boundaries were determined and investigated using the SCS method and estimating the area's water budget. Due to the lack of sufficient rainfall and groundwater discharge information in this region, the water budget for a given period (2019-2020) has been computed indirectly by measuring the monthly discharge rate from the selected stations. After collecting the required data, the following equation developed by Milanovich (1989) has been used to estimate the water budget as follows:P=E+R+I   (2)Where P, E, R, and I denote precipitation (P), evaporation at the basin level (E), runoff (R), and recharge to the aquifers (I). All the parameters are in mm units.

Analyzing the variation of electrical conductivity along with the discharge rate indicates that by decreasing the discharge rate from 2.5 l/s to 8.1 l/s, the electrical conductivity increase from 463 µs/cm to 500 µs/cm, reflecting an increase in the volume of the reservoir, the dilution of the aquifer. The hydrograph recession curve during 2019-2020 indicated two laminar and turbulent sub-regimes. Micro regimes α1 (01.002) and α2 (0.013) represented that the dominant system of karst development in the region is diffuse. The high density of fractures and the lack of purity of lime are the main reasons for the weak development of the karst fracture in the region, which the Chelekhaneh Alia spring recession curve analysis,  maximum to minimum ratio of discharge, and karstification coefficient confirmed this issue. Determining the catchment basin using geological, hydrogeological information, and water budget showed that the hydrological and hydrogeological boundary of the spring is different. The protected zone of Chelekhane Alia spring, which includes the total hydrogeological basin and the Cretaceous limestone area below the level of the spring, was estimated to be about 184,000 square meters (18 hectares). According to the findings of this research, Sufian Cement Factory does not have the right to enter the hydrogeological boundary to extract limes, and on the other hand, to prevent the water level from decreasing due to the excessive extraction of lime as a result of the excavation depth reaching the level of the water table, it suggests to extract from the unsaturated part of the aquifer (unsaturated limes) to prevent the flow rate of Chele Khana spring from decreasing and even drying it up.

Analyzing the discharge rate, electrical conductivity, hydrograph recession curve, and its recession coefficient(α=0.002), revealed that the dominant flow in the system is diffuse, which results from the high density of fractures and region lithology consisting of impure cretaceous limestone. Since the result revealed the inconsistency between hydrological and hydrogeological boundaries, the geological profile of the site was prepared and the spring of the catchment was estimated. Based on the findings of this research, the Chelle Khanehe Olya capture zone consists of the hydrogeological area, obtained from the groundwater budget estimation, and the protective boundary for the limestone below Cheleh Khaneh Olya spring (the unsaturated zone of the area's limestones), which covers an area of about 18 hectares.