The Role of Iran's Glaciers on River Flows and an Estimate of Their Volumes

Iran glaciers have not been enough considered as one of the country''s water resources. The total area of the Iran glaciers is estimated to be between 27 to 32 km2. Unfortunately، there are evidences that they are gradually retreating، a tragedy that is happening for other world''s glaciers. Assessment of these changes on the rivers that are originated from glaciers is very important، especially from water resources management point of view. This subject constructs objective of this paper and it applies a number of statistical methods such as trend and homogeneity analysis in this regard. The results show that except in a few cases، there are not significant changes in seasonal discharges of the investigated rivers. Furthermore، it is tried to estimate total volumes of the glaciers using some empirical methods and a few field measurements. The estimated volumes by the applied methods vary from 850 to 2300 MCM. However، the method which resulted in 2300 MCM fits better with the field measurements.