Evaluation of the effect of forest cover on quantitative and qualitative runoff parameters in Chitgar Forest Park Watershed, Tehran

Many environmental challenges such as stormwater runoff and flood risk, chemical and particulate pollution of urban air, soil and water, the urban heat island, and summer heat waves are exacerbated in urban environments. Runoff from heavy rainfall in many parts of the world lead to erosion, sedimentation and transportation of elements that forest covers is the most important factor in controlling it. In this research, the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of runoff in Chitgar forest park have been investigated. For this purpose, runoff discharge, physicochemical parameters including total suspended solids, total dissolved solids, pH, and chemical parameters including calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, nitrate and phosphate were measured and analyzed during three storm events. The results of the present study indicated that the average values of the measured parameters were 1988.3 l / h, 40.64 mg/l, 2064.8 mg/l, 7.75, 2.95 mg/l, 2.23 mg/l, 584.4 mg/l, 5.71 mg/l, 1.36 mg/l, and 0.71 mg / l. Also, the correlation between parameters showed that there was a strong relationship between measured parameters, with the highest correlations between calcium with discharge (0.66) and total dissolved solids (0.69) and sodium with pH (0.7) and total dissolved solids (0.65). Comparison of the results obtained from this study and with those of other studies on water quality status of different rivers indicates that the qualitative pattern of urban runoff and also the relationships among the qualitative parameters of urban runoff are very different from surface runoff of rivers.