An investigation on the effect of floodwater spreading on physicochemical soil attributes (Case study: Gachsaran Floodwater spreading station)

Small precipitation with temporal and spatial variation of rainfall is the main responsible factors on flood occurrence in arid and semi arid regions. Floods in their regions usually contain high concentration of sediments which when they are deposited on the surface of lands، they change the properties of soils of the area. In this research، the effect of floodwater spreading on physic-chemical characteristics of soil in Gachsaran floodwater spreading station، after 12 years of floodwater spreading، is investigated. For this purpose، soils and sediments were sampled from 0-15، 15-30، 30-45 and 45-60 centimeter depths، from the flood spreading and representative (without floodwater spreading) fields. Samples were analyzed for following proportion: percentages of clay، silt، sand and gravel، pH، EC، percentage of lime، anions and cations. The result have show that the amounts of clay، silt and sand have increased، chemical properties have changed slightly and among the chemical properties، pH and percentage of lime have higher change so that pH decreased and lime increased in floodwater spreading field respect to the representative field. It is concluded that due to floodwater spreading، physical properties of the field underwent considerable amount of changes and gravelly texture has changed to less gravelly texture. The surface soil has undergone more changes and from the surface to the depth، change of physical and chemical properties becomes negligible.