مجله تحقیقات آب و خاک ایران
سال پنجاهم شماره 8 (پیاپی 46، دی 1398)

Increasing knowledge and soil quality evaluation in different ecosystems is important to improve sustainable land use management and to decrease land degradation. Therefore, the present study was planned to analyse the effects of different land use (irrigated farms, rain fed farms, orchards and rangelands), texture and topography on soil quality of Shazand Watershed with an area of 1740 km2. For this purpose, 140 soil samples were taken from top layer of the soil (0 to 30 cm) from homogeneous units representing an area of more than one square kilometers. Hence, various soil properties such as electrical connectivity (EC), pH, bulk density (BD), gravel, sand, silt, clay, calcium carbonate (CaCO3), nitrogen (N), soil organic carbon (SOC) were analyzed. Consequently, the effect of land uses, textures, slopes, and elevation on the measured soil properties were examined using multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA). The result of MANOVA indicated that the different land uses had no significant effect (P> 0.05) on different soil properties. Also, the minimum effective properties on soil quality were determined by the minimum data set (MDS) with the help of principal components analysis (PCA). Finally, soil quality index values were calculated using discriminant analysis (DA). The results of PCA and DS showed that the EC, OM, CaCO3 and pH were influenced by soil texture, slope and elevation, respectively. Then, the comparison of mean soil quality values using the least significant differences (LSD) indicated poor soil quality on slopes less than 15% and elevations above 2000 m. The results of this research could be used for choosing appropriate management practices to control land degradation and to achieve sustainable development goals in different ecosystems of Shazand Watershed.

In this study, the capability of multi-layer perceptron (MLP) and multivariate linear regression methods were evaluated to estimate the total solar radiation. For this purpose, the daily weather data of 25 years (1992-2017) including maximum temperature, mean temperature, relative humidity, sunshine hours and solar radiation were used in the five synoptic stations (Bandarabbas, Zanjan, Shiraz, Kerman and Mashhad). The inputs used in the models included various combinations of these variables, and the output was the solar radiation. To evaluate the performance of these models, Determination of Coefficient (R2), Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE), Mean Absolute Error (MAE) and Index of Agreement (IA) were used. In order to train the structure of the ANN, two Bayesian-regularization (Br) and Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) algorithms were compared. Moreover, the training and validation processes were performed. The results of regression model showed that all the input variables are effective on the solar radiation estimation at Bandarabbas, Zanjan and Shiraz, but the effect of relative humidity on radiation at Kerman and Mashhad stations was low. The ANN application with two algorithms showed that Bandarabbas and Kerman stations using the Br algorithm and Zanjan, Shiraz and Mashhad using the LM algorithm give a good result. The lowest values of RMSE, MAE and the highest value of IA and R2 related to Kerman station were 2.799, 0.94, 0.954 and 0.838, respectively. As a main result, the comparison between computation and observation data showed that the ANN model gives better results than the linear regression model for estimation of radiation.

One of the brine waste disposal options used by developed countries is “evaporation ponds”. In order to increase the efficiency of evaporation ponds in terms of increasing the amount of evaporation and consequently, decreasing the amount of required area for ponds, this subject has been paid more attention by researchers. As, the evaporation rate from ponds is the most important component, the possibility of saving solar energy and releasing the stored heat by Zeolite was studied in this research to increase the evaporation potential of the pond. For this purpose different amounts and types of Zeolite were examined and the Zeolite 13x was chosen. The experiments have been carried out on the platform of Karaj Meteorological Station using two evaporation pans; a test pan including the setup used in this research, and a synoptic available pan as the control pan. The results showed by using different mass of Zeolite (43.8 to 525.1 g/m2), the evaporation rate increases 4 to 22% as compared to the control pan. Also, the effect of Zeolite on evaporation rate from saline water was investigated. The results showed that the evaporation rate decreases as compared to the one from Zeolite pond with fresh water. Also, a linear relationship was established between different percentages of salinity and evaporation rates. The results of this study showed by considering saline drainage water, the price of Zeolite and land for construction of evaporation ponds, it is possible to increase the amount of evaporation rate from evaporation ponds and consequently reduce the dimensions of these ponds for economical purposes. Therefore, it is possible to prevent agricultural drainage disposal into rivers.

Subsurface drip irrigation has been widely applied in arid area as a water-saving irrigation technology. But, a comprehensive knowledge of wetting pattern in drip Irrigation is essential for designing and managing such system. Simulation models have been proved to be useful method for this purpose. Therefore, this research was carried out to investigate the dimensions of wetting pattern in subsurface drip irrigation in a clay loam soil using invers modeling method with Hydrus 2D and based on experimental results and empirical models. The results were categorized into four sections: 1. Laboratory results showed that only for emitters with 8 liters per hour and installed at 15 cm depth, the wetted dimension below the emitter is more than the one above the emitter. 2. Sensitivity analysis on soil hydraulic parameters showed that the most sensitive parameter is θs, but the soil porosity continuity (l) and the remaining moisture content (θr) are not effective parameters. 3. Wetting front in emitters with discharge rate more than 2 liters per hour and installed at 15 cm depth in the clay loam soil is reached to the soil surface, while it does not reach to the soil surface in the emitters installed at 30 cm depth, even with discharge rate up to 8 liters per hour. Therefore, the evaporation rate from the soil surface is minimized. 4. Statistical indices showed that there is no significant differences among the empirical, numerical and the observation data, so that the normalized RMSE for the numerical and empirical models varied from 4.4 to 6.2 and 3.4 to 8 percent, respectively. Consequently, the results of this study showed that the proposed empirical model and Hydrus model can be used for estimation of wetting pattern in the soil.

Irrigation management is one of the most important factors affecting the maize growth. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of different furrow irrigation management on maize growth. This research was carried out as split plot in a randomized complete block design at Kabootarabad Research Station in Isfahan Province. The main factor included three levels of surface irrigation regime; I1 (100%), I2 (80%), I3 (60%) and the sub-factor included conventional, alternative and constant irrigation methods. The studied parameters were plant height, fresh and dry yield, leaf area and leaf area index, which were measured at five stages of maize growth. The results showed that the effect of different irrigation regimes and different types of furrow irrigation was statistically significant on forage maize properties at 1% level. The highest impact on growth properties was corresponded to I1 regime and conventional furrow irrigation and the lowest one was corresponded to I3 regime and constant alternative furrow irrigation. plant height, fresh and dry yield in conventional and standard irrigation were equal to190 cm, 63978 and 20830 kgha-1 respectively. The same traits in I3 irrigation regime and constant alternative furrow irrigation were obtained 116 cm, 33635 and 8053 kgha-1 respectively. Changing the conventional furrow irrigation to constant alternate furrow irrigation until the harvesting stage led to save water consumption 39.3% and water use efficiency was increased 37%. Generally, by executing deficit irrigation up to 20% in conventional furrow irrigation or by using alternative furrow irrigation, in addition of saving water consumption and increasing irrigation water use efficiency, a reliable yield can be produced.

Agricultural activity, especially cultivating rice, is one of the main reason of the destruction of natural forests in the north of Iran. This study was performed to investigate the effects of changing natural forest to Paddy Field on some physical and chemical properties of the soil and to determine the most sensitive indices to the disturbance of an ecosystem. Moreover, in this study, the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) method was used to create a minimum set of data from measured physical and chemical parameters. Accordingly, two land uses (natural forest and paddy field) were selected in Gilan province and soil samples were collected from five different depths (0-20, 20-40, 40-60, 60-80, and 80-100) three times. Soil texture, density, field capacity, dispersible clay, mean weight diameter (MWD), pH, electrical conductivity, calcium carbonate, organic carbon, total nitrogen, cation exchange capacity, extractable carbohydrates with acid and extractable carbohydrates with hot water at each depth were measured and the results were analyzed as factorial in a completely randomized design. The results indicated that by changing the land use from forest to paddy field, the average apparent density of the soil profile (15%) and dispersible clay (33%) were increased. However, the MWD (76%), organic carbon content (57%), total nitrogen (53%), and cation exchange capacity (31%) were reduced. The sensitivity index (SI) showed that among the physical and chemical parameters, MWD and organic carbon content were respectively more sensitive than the other parameters to land use change. The results of PCA revealed that the four factors could almost justify more than 90% of the variance in MWD, organic Carbone, density, moisture content in field capacity, extractable carbohydrates with acid, and extractable carbohydrates with hot water. These parameters showed the highest commonality and the clay percentage had the minimum relative importance among the estimation of commonality values.

A field experiment was carried out in order to investigate the effect of several types of nitrogen biofertilizer on yield and yield components of two wheat cultivars (Chamran and Shiroudi) as split plots based on randomized complete block design with three replications in Darab city. Wheat cultivars (spring type Chamran and Shiroudi) were considered as main plots and biological fertilizers (General Nitragin (A1) – Nitragin special Cereal (A2) –Nitrokara (A3) –Nitroxin (A4) – Nitrogy (A5) – Nitrogen biofarm (A6) – 100% pure Nitrogen (A7= 400 kg ha-1 as urea) – without Nitrogen application (A8)) as subplots. The measured indices included plant height, number of spikes per square meter, number of seeds per spike, 1000 grain weight and yield per unit area. According to the results, there was a significant difference between wheat cultivars (P ≤0.05) and fertilizers (P ≤ 0.01).  The treatment A4 (nitroxin + 60% pure nitrogen from urea source) obtained the highest values for the measured indices. The A2, A1, A3, A6 and A5 treatments were arranged in the next step, respectively. A7 treatment, which was exclusively urea, was arranged in the next step. Generally, the biofertilizers applied in this study containing nitrogen fixation bacteria (NFB) from Azotobacter and Azospirilum genuse, if accompanied with nitrogen fertilizer like Urea, could be a suitable and safe alternative for supplying a part of nitrogen chemical Fertilizers.

There are different methods to extract energy and generating electricity from waves, which one of the simplest and most practical methods is oscillating water column (OWC). The OWC system consists of a chamber in which the wave motion inside the chamber produces a positive and negative dynamic pressure. This pressure causes turbine rotation placed at the end of the duct. In this study, three physical models; without back wall, 50 mm and 100 mm wall draft at different frequencies were used to investigate the effect of the back wall draft on the system performance. In addition, dimensional analysis has been performed to estimate the dynamic pressure based on the effective parameters. In order to evaluate the system efficiency and present the dynamic pressure formula based on dimensional analysis, the dynamic pressure at the end of chamber in both inhale and exhale modes were measured. The results of this research showed that the existence of back wall causes a significant increase in dynamic pressure and as the wall height increases, the system performance improves. In the inhale mode, the presence of the back wall causes an increase in the pressure ratio at some frequencies up to two times and for exhale mode up to four times. Based on the formula derived from dimensional analysis and sensitivity analysis, the wave height and the back wall draft have the most effectiveness on dynamic pressure. The results show in order to obtain the best system efficiency, the height of the back wall draft should be determined according to the wave height and frequency.

A broad area of saline and semi-saline lands of Khuzestan province have changed into centers susceptible to dust production due to eroded wind and lack of surface coating and low soil resistance. The objective of this study was to model the soil salinity of sensitive areas to dust production in Khuzestan Provenience usin spectrometry method of visible and near-infrared wavelengths (2500-350 nm). The least square multivariate regression model, artificial neural network and random forest model were used to estimate soil salinity. The main soil spectrum was determined using the FieldSpect machine. Also, preprocessing methods including Savitzky-Golay filter, the first derivative with the Savitzky-Golay filter (FD-SG), the second derivative with the Savitzky-Golay filter (SD-SG), the standard normalization method (SNV), and the continuum remove method (CR) were used to eliminate the noise and to increase the accuracy of the multivariate model. The results showed that the combined model partial least squares-artificial neural network model with assessment criteria (RPDcal = 3.40-2.65) has high accuracy for salinity estimation. In contrast, the combined model of least squares - random forest showed the lowest accuracy (RPDcal = 0.85-1.98). Preprocess of the main spectrum in two models (neural network and partial least squares regression) increased the relative accuracy of the model; while in the random forest model, preprocess reduced the accuracy of the model compared to the main spectrum. The ranges of 1800, 1900, 2000, 2300 and 1500 nm were recognized as "the key wavelengths" impressed by soil salinity. The key wavelengths can be used in remote sensing studies and mapping of soil salinity in areas sensitive to dust production in Khuzestan province.

In addition to use in climate models, solar radiation plays a decisive role in development of solar systems programs in different areas. With significant advances in telecommunication and communication sector, the use of satellite imageries for land-based observations has found a wider role than traditional observations. Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite products are available to the public free of charge and have a reasonable resolution of 1km × 1km. In this research, it was tried to calculate the amount of total solar radiation in 4 stations in Iran, using the Earth's surface and atmospheric MODIS data as an input of the parametric and the Angström-Prescott (AP) models and to compare the results with ground-level observations. The AP model output obtained from the MODIS data (APRS) was compared with the AP model output obtained from ground level observation data (APGS). By comparing the results, it was found that the APRS model is more accuracy than the APGS model on cloudy days. So that the amount of RMSE and MBE indices for the APRS model on cloudy days were 41.74 W/m2 and 19.70 W/m2, respectively, and for APGS model were 43.6 W/m2 and 34.25 W/m2, respectively. However, the accuracy of the APGS model on sunny days was higher than that of the APRS model. Although the limitations of ground data (point observations) could be an effective factor in choosing one of both models. Results also indicate a high accuracy of the parametric model (RMSE = 16.56 W/m2 and R2 =0.93), especially on cloudy days. On the other hand, despite of high accuracy of the parametric model, the application of APRS model is easy. However, long period sunshine hour’s data are needed for calibration of AP coefficients in different regions.

Increasing population growth and reducing water resources have led to use low-quality water resources in agricultural sector. In this study a factorial experiment in a randomized complete block design was conducted to apply salinity stress on one and two stages of maize growth period. Irrigation water salinity treatments including four levels; S1(1.5), S2(2.5), S3(4.0) and S4(5.5 dS.m-1) and the application time (growth stages) of salinity stress including six levels; 4-leaf stage (P1), flowering stage (P2), milking stage (P3), 4-leaf and flowering stages (P1P2), 4-leaf and milking stages (P1P3) and flowering and milking stages (P2P3) were performed. At the end of growth period, the highest maize yield (136.8 g/plant) was corresponded to P1S1 treatment the lowest one (41.7 g/plant) was corresponded to P2P3S4 treatment. The maize yield increased 17 and 33% in P1P3 and P1P2 treatments as compared to P3 and P2 treatments, respectively, although they received salinity stresses two times during their growing periods.  While, the yield reduced 6.2 and 23% in P2P3 treatment as compared to P2 and P3 treatments, respectively. The results showed that the application of salinity stress in the early growth stages makes the crop to be resistant to salinity stress during the sensitive growth stages. Therefore, the application time of saline water will be important in terms of conjunction use of fresh and saline water resources.

In this study seepage factors in two-layered and three-layered foundation of a diversion dam was investigated experimentally. Results showed by increasing the upstream head, outlet discharge increases. The trend of discharge increase was similar and the variations range was high for d50=0.6 mm and d50=1.25 mm, but the range of discharge variations was low for d50=0.24 mm. For two-layered foundations, the arrangement of D50=0.2 mm and D50=1.2 mm with 465mm upstream head was the best performance for piping control. Also the arrangement of D50=0.6 and D50=0.2 mm without cutoff had the least seepage discharge (about 0.266 mlit/s). In the presence of cutoff, the best performance for piping control was obtained for the arrangement of D50=0.6-0.2 mm and the seepage discharge was about 0.066 mlit/s. The arrangements of D50=1.2 mm, D50=0.6 mm without cutoff and D50=0.6 mm, D50=0.2 mm with cutoff had the best performance for hydraulic gradient control which were about 0.002 and 0.0011 for 410 mm upstream head, respectively. For three-layered foundation, the arrangements of D50=0.2 mm, D50=0.6 mm, D50= 1.2 mm and D50=1.2 mm, D50=0.6 mm, D50=0.2 mm showed the best performance for piping control so that piping was happened in 490 and 480mm upstream heads, respectively. The best arrangements in terms of  seepage discharge control, without and with cutoff were respectively (D50=0.2 mm, D50=0.6 mm, D50= 1.2 mm) and (D50=0.2 mm, D50=1.2 mm, D50=0.6 mm) with 410mm upstream head, in which the seepage discharges were obtained about 0.533 and 0.433 mlit/s, respectively. The results of this study showed that the multi-layered foundations could be considered as an effective alternative in reduction of outlet gradient and control of piping and seepage discharge.

Discharge control valve is a device for volumetric water delivery purposes without using electronic facilities. For analytical modeling of pressurized pipe networks, valves are introduced with their head loss properties. Therefore, any information about the valve head loss is very crucial. In this study, the head loss coefficient in discharge control valves is estimated. For this purpose, control valves were fabricated for the design discharges of 5 and 10 l/s and their performances were tested experimentally. The results indicated that the discharge control valves could accurately deliver an almost constant discharge, irrespective to the pressure fluctuations. The head-loss of entrance and all parts of the valve were investigated experimentally. Measuring the associated head loss coefficients indicated that the entrance head loss is significant in low differential pressures. Also, it was observed by increasing the differential pressure, the total head loss increases as well. From the hydraulic point of view, the main reason creating a relatively constant discharge through the valve is increasing/decreasing the head-loss proportional to increasing/decreasing the differential pressure. Finally, based on Buckingham analysis, empirical formulas were presented to define the head-loss coefficients.

Nitrate and ammonium are the major contaminants of aquatic ecosystem causing eutrophication in water resources. Application of natural, inexpensive and ecofriendly adsorbents can be a useful approach for ammonium and nitrate removal from aqueous solutions. The aim of this study was to investigate the ability of common reed biochar to absorb nitrate and ammonium from aqueous solution. For this purpose, the common reed biochar was prepared at 500°C and its characteristics were measured. The effect of initial concentration, contact time, pH and biochar dosage on nitrate and ammonium adsorption was studied using batch experiment. Adsorption of nitrate and ammonium by biochar reached to equilibrium after 480 and 240 minutes, respectively. The optimal pH for removal of nitrate and ammonium was 3 and 9, respectively. The efficiency of nitrate and ammonium removal increased with increasing contact time and dose of biochar. The pseudo second order kinetic model provides a good description for the adsorption process of ammonium (r2=0.994)  and nitrate (r2 =0.970). Langmuir and Freundlich isotherms showed the best fit for ammonium and nitrate experimental data, respectively. Generally, the common reed biochar showed a high capacity for adsorption of nitrate (73.52 mg g-1) and ammonium (42.55 mg g-1). Therefore, the exhausted adsorbents containing ammonium and nitrate has a good potential as a soil conditioner that can supply part of plant''s need to nitrogen.

Sediment yield is the most important environmental issues in watershed basins which greatly affects human and animal life. Therefore, soil conservation and sediment control is one of the most important measures that should be paid attention. As various factors such as land use change can affect sediment yield,  this study was performed to investigate the effect of land use change on sediment yield of Kouhdasht basin, located in the west of Lorestan province. For this purpose firstly, land use changes were investigated using satellite imagery and then sediment discharge was estimated using discharge and sediment concentration data of Kashkan Afrine station located at the basin outlet. Finally, the contribution of land use in sediment yield was estimated using the fingerprinting technique based on the Bayesian uncertainty model. The results showed that the change in land use from grazing land and forest to agriculture was significant. So that during 1361-1395, 49 and 24.8% of the grazing and forest lands were reduced, respectively and agricultural lands increased by 47.5%. Also the results obtained from Kashkan Afrine station data showed that the average sediment discharge increased from 5.954 ton/day in 1361 to 7.079 ton/day in 1395. The results of fingerprinting sediment model indicated that the agricultural lands have the most contribution in sediment yield. The contribution (uncertainty of 5 to 95%) of agriculture, grazing land and forest in sediment yield were calculated to be 95 (86-99), 3.1 (0-12) and 0.9 (0-3) percent, respectively and the relative importance of each resources was calculated to be 1.5, 0.28 and 0.03, respectively. These results indicated that the most important factor increasing sediment discharge is the land use change from forest and rangeland to agriculture.

The application of marginal water, such as saline water for irrigation, is inevitable due to increasing demand for water in arid and semi-arid regions. In order to study the effect of salinity stress on growth and yield of three fodder maize hybrids using drip-tape irrigation, a factorial experiment in randomized complete block design was carried out in 2017. The treatments consisted of three maize hybrids (SC 704, SC 400 and SC 260) and three levels of water salinity (0.7, 3 and 5 dS/m). To ensure seed germination, all treatments were irrigated with fresh water from germination stage to 40 cm height of corn and then salinity stress was applied. The results of variance analysis and comparison of mean measured charactristics (fresh and dry weight of forage, grain yield, 1000-grain weight, leaf area index and plant height) showed that there were significant differences among charactristics under different levels of water salinity. The most and the least amount of each charactristic were observed in the control and maximum salinity stress treatments, respectively. The result of this study showed a significant effect of maize hybrid type on most of the measured charactristics, as the most amounts was found in SC 704.

In the recent years, the failure of many bridges has reported due to local scour around abutment. Many studies have focused on reducing the scour with the help of structures reducing the destructive effects of flow. In this study, the scouring effect on two vertical wall abutments with different widths was investigated using clean water. Where the upstream face of the latter is protected with roughening elements as devices to intercept the down flow responsible for the formation of the principal vortex. Different sizes of the elements with thicknesses and protrusions equal to 0.025L, 0.05L, 0.1L, 0.2L and 0.3L (L is the length of the abutment) placed at different elevations on abutments were investigated. The optimum elevation of roughening elements obtained at 0.6L below the bed level. As the thickness and protrusion dimensions of the elements increases to 0.2L, scour depth around the abutment decreases, and after that increases if the element size become larger. In conclusion, the roughening elements with thickness and protrusion equal to 0.2L and placement of 0.6L below the sediment bed reduced the scour depth 30.4 and 32.8% at the small and large abutments, respectively.

Regarding the importance of medicinal plants cultivation such as Satureja hortensis and the state of the country's water resources, determination of medicinal plants' evapotranspiration, essential oil content and yield is very important under water stress. As, no comprehensive research has been done on determining evapotranspiration, essential oil content and morphological factors of Satureja hortensis under drought stress conditions, an experiment was conducted at research field of  Agricultural faculty in Lorestan University in 2017. For this purpose, mini lysimeters (pots with 25 cm in diameter and 30 cm in height) were used. In this research, irrigation was done by weighing method. Irrigation treatments included T100: supplying 100% of water requirement, T80: supplying 80% of water requirement, T60: supplying 60% of water requirement and T40: supplying 40% of water requirement. The results showed that all morphological characteristics (plant height, number of branches, stem diameter, as well as dry weight of leaf and flowering shoot, roots and stems) decreased significantly under water stress conditions. The dry matter (consist of leaf, flower and branch) in all treatments from T100 to T40 were 1731.92, 1640.9, 1529.9 and 1408.6 kg/ha, the essential oil percent were 1.08, 1.3, 1.58 and 2% and the amount of evapotranspiration were 758.68, 653.75, 566.47 and 479.208 mm, respectively. In T40 treatment the biomass decreased by 19%, the essential oil percent became double and water use efficiency increased by 29%. In this study, the yield response factor to water stress was estimated to be 0.61. According to this value, it seems Satureja hortensis is relatively resistant to water stress (under the condition of using pots).

High nitrate concentration in water resources leads to many health and environmental problems. In this study, stabilization of the zeolite nanoparticles modified by cationic surfactant was applied on the pumice bed to remove excess nitrate from aqueous solutions. Zeolite nanoparticles, following modification by CTAB surfactant, were stabilized on the substrate of pumice aggregate and their physical and structural characteristics were investigated by XRD, EDAX, and SEM analyses. In this research, the response surface method based on the Box-Behnken model was used to evaluate the effects of independent variables pH (5-9), temperature (15-45 ºC), and adsorbent dosage (5-15 g) on the response function and to predict the best response value. The results revealed that the maximum nitrate removal efficiency predicted by the model was 52.26 % in optimal conditions (temperature 34°C, pH 5 and adsorbent amount of 15 g). Also, the nitrate removal rate was increased by increasing the adsorbent dosage and contact time, while the removal efficiency decreased with increasing pH and initial nitrate concentration. The study showed that the modified pumice aggregates could be used as an effective and economical adsorbent for removal of pollutants.

Water resources management in the basins has a wide and complex dimension, which is always faced with challenges such as environmental, socio-economic impacts, especially for decision-making on water transfer among basins. In this research, a multi-criteria decision Support system has been developed to allocate drinking, industrial and agricultural water and transfer water from Mazandaran to Golestan Provinces. Planning water resources, determining transferable surplus water by WEAP model, determining various coefficients of economic, social, technical, water resources and environmental criteria using Expert Choice software and their connection by Excel software were performed. Three Alternatives for transferring water including 1: transferring water from agricultural land upstream with Chalous excess water 2: transferring water from agricultural land upstream without Chalous excess water 3: transferring water from agricultural land downstream near the sea were defined and evaluated using multi-criteria evaluation. The results of the model showed that allocation of 82.2 million cubic meters for drinking and 10.5 million cubic meters for agricultural uses, considering the economic, social, technical, water resources and environmental criteria, is the optimum alternative for transferring water from Mazandaran province to Golestan province (Alternative 2) and it has the highest score (7.33) in the multi-criteria evaluation. Multi-criteria decision support system model was developed on the basis of the selected option, so that it is possible to examine different scenarios and can help decision-makers and planners to plan and allocate water resources at the basin level. The outputs of the model showed that considering economic indicators lonely could not lead to a proper decision for allocating water resources, especially for water transfer between the basins. Thus, in addition to economic considerations, it is necessary to consider the social, environmental, water resources and technical criteria using a multi-criteria evaluation.