Recognition and Analysis of Surface Water Resources Capacity, Prerequisite of Land Use Planning in the Province of Kerman

Water is a key element of land use planning and sustainable development, and recognizing and analyzing of water resources capacity is a prerequisite for land use planning. By analyzing the daily stream flow data collected at the hydrometric stations, 43 stations with the common period between 1976 and 2011 in the Province of Kerman were selected. The most important components of the surface water resources including base flow, flow duration curve (FDC) indices, flood discharges, runoff threshold, flood intensity, potential snowfall elevation, and the rainfall components were analysed. The average base flow index in the catchments of the province was 0.61. About 78% of the catchments had a base flow index of more than 0.50. The mean coefficient of variation of the FDC indices was 0.11. Changes in the snow line potential in every catchment of the region followed the same trend. The runoff threshold range was 0 to 25 millimeters and a class of 0 to 5 with 44.9% of the surface coverage was the most frequent, covering the north and northeast of the province. More than 50% of the province land is in the low flood intensity. About 50% of the catchments had more than 50 rainy days and 45% of the catchments were in the range of 200-300 millimetres of average annual precipitation. Results of the sustainable water access indices including base flow index, coefficient of variation of FDC indices and snow line potential showed proper capability of watersheds of the Province of Kerman to optimize the water-related projects and control the overexploitation of the groundwater resources in the arid regions.