Physical Characteristics of the Arsenjan's Katak Qanat, and an Assessment of Damming its Base Flow during the Off Season

Article abstract:Qanats of Arsenjan City, 130 km northeast of Shiraz, I.R. Iran, are the most important source of supplying water for its vast irrigated farm fields. Of these, the Katak Qanat, with the base flow of 20 l/s, situated 7.5 km west of the city, was singled out for our study. The physical characteristics of this qanat, namely its geology, discharge, bed slope, water surface slope, the length of wet (tareh–kar in Farsi) and dry (khoshkeh–kar in Farsi) galleries were measured using the field survey techniques. The collected data were analyzed to assess the possibility of damming its base flow during the off season when it is wasted. The preliminary results confirm our hypothesis that this is a practicable technique in water resources management in a large expanse of Iran where water is the country’s economic mainsta