Upstream Groundwater Recharge, Promising Solution for Survival of Almond Farmlands in Kashmar (Khorasan Razavi)

A total of 16000 ha of Kohsorkh flat in Kashmar area (Khorasan Razavi Province) has been cultivated with almond trees. These trees used to be rainfed using direct rainfall and occasional flood water. It is supposed that because of climate change and consequent draught condition, most of 5 to 50 years old trees being affected by water shortage and are getting dried. It was noticed that some trees located in the upstream parts of the catchment have been survived looking very green and productive. Field witnessing showed that in those particular areas, there exist small earthfills being constructed along the stream channel, right after mountains and before the cultivation zone. The purpose of this study was to analyze the role of this system of earthfills with regard to possible relation to watering downstream trees. The study started with routine investigations such as physiography, meteorology, hydrology and geological survay ending to a seepage analysis for evaluating the role of earthfills for flood control and recharge of downstream areas. The results showed that because of geological nature of the mountains and permeable stream bed, small earthfills could have captured, slow down and infiltrated appropriate amount of surface runoff -up to some extend- into the downstream soil profile so that it could have been used by trees’ root existed nearby the earthfills. This is considered as a great opportunity and paradigm in order to survive the remaining part of the cultivation having similar condition.