Investigation of the effects of flood water spreading on improving quantity and quality of rangelands

There are several methods for aquifer recharge that one of them is flood water spreading. The goals of this method consist of feeding of ground water table، increasing the vegetation cover and soil quality. The purpose of this study was investigating the effects of water spreading on the quantity and quality changes of vegetation cover in flood water spreading area of Tangestan over the period of 2000 to 2005. Flood water spreading network consist of 5 strips and12 fixed plots (2×2 m) were established in each strip based on randomized-systematic method. To evaluate the results، an intact land was selected as control area and 8 plots with the same characteristics were established. To investigate of vegetation cover changes in the experiment and control networks، parameters of vegetation such as percent of cover، density، diversity، rate of production، quality and presence and absence of plant species was measured and analyzed with SPSS software. The results showed that in addition to the successful growing of planted trees and shrubs species in the water spreading area، the amount of the dry forage productive increased about 135 kg/ha. Also rangeland trend towards a positive way and change in combination of herbal species had resulted compared to the control area. Also the results showed that there are significant variation between the rate of production and percent of vegetation cover in the experiment and control areas.