Environmental Impact Assessment of the Sanitation Project of AjiChay River by Two Methods of Pastakia and Weighted Checklist

AjiChay is one of the most important rivers in the Urmia catchment area, which collects relatively large regional waters from the East Azerbaijan province and sends them to Lake Urmia. In recent years, in order to revive Lake Urmia, parts of the river have been rehabilitated and reorganized to transfer water to the main body of Lake Urmia. In this research, the effects of environmental damage on the improvement of the AjiChay River in physical, biological, social, economic and cultural environments were studied and evaluated using two methods of organizing and non-organizing of Pastakia matrix and weighted checklist (scaled). The study of the construction and operation of the project based on the results of the method of Pastakia showed that the positive effects of the project are 61% and its negative effects are 31.7%, and 7.3% of the works are not effective. The results of the checklist method also showed that the failure to implement the Aji Chai River Arrangement Plan would result in 13 positive effects versus 29 negative ones. Positive effects are limited to natural and physical environments and biological environments, but negative effects will occur in addition to those environments in the economic and social environments. In general, the results of both methods show that the most positive effects of this plan are related to socio-economic aspects. Ultimately, the environmental impact assessment shows that the Ajichay scheme has succeeded in achieving its primary goals.