The Study of the Effects of Landuse Changes on Flood Occurrence in Sofi Chai Basin

The present work aims to assess the effects that landuse change has induced on the flood frequency regime. Study area covers upstream of Alavian Dam (250 km2) in the Sofi Chai basin. The torrential periods (in terms of flood event frequency and duration) has been carried out by comparing each daily discharge with the base flood. Here, the base flood (flood with 2 years return period) was calculated from maximum annual discharge based on fitting various distribution models, and then the best fit model was chosen by considering RSS criteria. The results indicate that flood events and their duration tended to be abated on the last decade.In this research, landuse/cover changes have been detected by interpretation of remotely sensed data based on object oriented method. The results indicated that the positive changes of crop patterns (overdeveloping of orchards as well as dry farming increasing) were occurred in the study basin. HEC-HMS model was applied for simulation of rainfall-runoff process and assessment of the effects of landuse changes on the flood frequency. HEC-HMS simulated results based on corresponding CN derived from 2000 to 2005 satellite images show 36% abated of flood event respectively. It should be noticed that the construction of a part of mechanical watershed management operations can reduce the flood events by reserving the surplus runoff.