نشریه علوم آب و خاک (علوم و فنون کشاورزی و منابع طبیعی)
سال بیست و سوم شماره 4 (پیاپی 90، زمستان 1398)

Land surface temperature (LST) is used as one of the key sources to study land surface processes such as evapotranspiration, development of indexes, air temperature modeling and climate change. Remote sensing data offer the possibility of estimating LST all over the world with high temporal and spatial resolution. Landsat-8, which has two thermal infrared channels, provides an opportunity for the retrieval of LST using the split- window method. The main objective of this research was to analyze the LST of land use/land cover types of the central part of Isfahan Province using the split- window algorithm. The obtained results demonstrated that the "other" class which had been mainly covered with bare lands exhibited the highest LST (50.9°C). Impervious surfaces including residential areas, roads and industries had the LST of 45°C. The lowest temperature was observed in the "water" class, which was followed by vegetation. Vegetation recorded a mean LST of 42.3°C. R2 was 0.63 when regression was carried out on LST and air temperature.

There are new technologies such as geographic information systems (GIS) that can be effective in the optimization of irrigation water. Therefore, utilizing these resources in a desirable, effective and efficient manner to ensure sustainable development is one of the most important issues in the today's world. The aim of this study was to determine and evaluate the potential water use efficiency (WUEp) index in the plain scale by using net water requirement data, area under cultivation and yields, and to determine the comparative advantage of wheat and barley plants in Tehran, Alborz, Qom, Qazvin and Zanjan provinces by employing the geographic information system (GIS). The yields of wheat and barley products by weighted average in ArcGIS software were converted to yields in the plains scale. To calculate the potential and actual water use efficiency, we used the OPTIWAT software in order to calculate the net irrigation water and the current irrigation efficiency plains; also, the yields of wheat and barley products in the plains scale were used. Zoning water use efficiency indexes was performed by using the ArcGIS software and Kriging method. Mapping results showed a comparative advantage of crops in the west and northwest of Tehran province, south and southwest of Alborz province, southwest, north- west and center of Qazvin province, center Qom province and also, northern and southern regions of the Zanjan province, in comparison to other areas. Average potential and actual water use efficiency in the whole study area of the provinces for wheat were 1.43 and 0.58 kg m-3, respectively, while these were 1.62 and 0.65 kg m-3 for barley, respectively.

A ‘spillway’ is a structure used to provide the controlled release of flood water from upstream into downstream area of a dam. As an important component of every dam, a spillway should be constructed strongly, reliably and efficiently to be used at any moment. Labyrinth and stepped spillways are presented as appropriate modifications to those spillways hardly capable of managing the maximum potential discharge. Owing to their nonlinear crests for a given width, labyrinth and stepped spillways have a larger discharge rate than linear- crest spillways at an identical height. Compared to other energy dissipaters, the combination of stepped and labyrinth spillways is known as a very strong energy dissipater. In the following part, the combination of these two structures and their dimensional change for increasing the water- energy dissipation are addressed. To conduct this study, an experimental flume with a 90- degree bend in the Islamic Azad University of Ahwaz was used. In total, 90 experiments were conducted on three different labyrinth- shape stepped spillway models with two different lengths, three different widths, and five different discharges. Analysis of the results showed a greater energy loss reduction in triangular rather than rectangular or trapezoidal labyrinth- shape stepped spillways. In addition, energy loss was greater in labyrinth spillways with two cycles than those with one cycle. Energy loss was increased by raising the Froude number from 0.05 to 0.1; in contrast, energy loss was decreased with increasing the Froude number from 0.1 to 1.0, which was due to the submergence of steps, a decrease in the roughness of steps and an increase in the intensity of aeration.

The production of compost and vermicompost from manure and different organic residues and also, their enrichment with some fertilizers and other treatments have been extensively investigated. However, no study has yet been conducted on the enrichment of composted and vermicomposted manure with clay minerals. This research was, therefore, carried out to investigate the selected properties of phlogopite enriched manure during the composting process with and without earthworm activity. The experiment was conducted in plastic containers with the lid under an average temperature of 27.5°C and the humidity of 42.5% using a factorial arrangement in a completely randomized design with 3 replications. Factors included levels of phlogopite addition (0%, 20% and 40% by weight), with or without the earthworm Eisenia fetida for different time periods of 1.5, 3, 4.5 and 6 months. At the end of the experiment, the total of organic carbon, nitrogen, potassium, magnesium, and iron, as well as the contraction the available magnesium, potassium and iron, was determined. The results showed that the percent of organic carbon was decreased while the total nitrogen, the total and available potassium, iron and magnesium were increased with time. The results also indicated that a significant percentage of the total content of the elements in all treatments without phlogopite was available. However, in treatments containing phlogopite, the amount of the available elements was increased slowly with time. This was Due to the weathering of phlogopite mineral and the decomposition of manure. In general, it seems that the enrichment of composted and vermicomposed manure with phlogopite can guarantee the supply of nutrients such as potassium, iron and magnesium in a longer period, as compared with the ordinary composts.

Nowadays, with the increasing population in Iran, especially in arid and semi-arid areas, as a result of the growing importance of the quality of water resources, including groundwater, field experiments and many simulations have been conducted for the development of groundwater contamination through powerful and up- to- date software. However, in most cases, there is a tangible difference between the measured data in laboratories and the data produced with software; this is why the scientific validation and verification of the research results could be declined. In this study, in order to justify and correct these data, the calibration principle was used to minimize the error of testing and modeling. The purpose of this study was to validate and verify the SUTRA model for different scenarios of the solute transport in a sand tank with heterogeneous hydraulic conductivity to evaluate transverse dispersivity. In this study, coding was initially performed for the configuration and calibration of the SUTRA numerical model to simulate different scenarios of the solute transport in a heterogeneous sand Tank in the Hydraulic Laboratory of the University of Kassel, Germany, until acceptable values were obtained. Then the results were compared with the experimental model. In order to validate and verify the data obtained from the simulation with the SUTRA model, the relevant concentration profiles were compared with the results of the experimental model. The results of the numerical and laboratory models revealed the density effects by sinking the geometric center of the mixing zone for the low concentrations of salt, C0 = 250 ppm. The results also showed that the width of the mixing zone between salt and fresh water depended on the amount of longitudinal dispersivity, especially the transverse dispersivity. By analyzing the results of simulation and experiment, it was observed that with increasing the velocity, reducing the amount of sinking and raising the input concentration, the time needed to achieve the steady dispersion was decreased.

Sloping farmlands are the major sources of soil, water and nutrient losses in arid and semi-arid regions. Information about the impacts of different tillage practices on soil erosion, nutrient loss and crop nutrient uptake on the sloping farmland of semi- arid soil is, however, limited. This study was carried out to investigate the effects of tillage direction on soil, water, nitrogen and phosphorous losses and their uptake by plant in a rainfed wheat land. Field experiments were conducted in two tillage directions: downslope tillage and contour line tillage with four fertilization treatments: control, urea, triple superphosphate, and urea + triple superphosphate at the field plots with 1.75 m ´ 8 m in dimensions by using the randomized completely block design at three replications in Zanjan Township during 2014-2015. According to the results, Significant differences were found between the two tillage practices in soil loss (P < 0.001), water loss (P < 0.001), nitrogen loss soil loss (P < 0.001), and nitrogen uptake by wheat grain (P < 0.001), while phosphorous loss and its uptake did not show any statistically significant difference. Soil and water loss in the downslope tilled plots was 1.65 and 2.50 times higher than the contour line tillage, respectively. Nitrogen loss in the downslope tilled plots was 1.29 times more than that in the contour line tilled plots. Nitrogen loss in the plots was attributed to soil and water loss, so significant relationships were observed between nitrogen loss and soil loss (R2 = 0.59) and water loss (R2 = 0.55). This study, therefore, revealed that the tillage direction is an important factor controlling runoff, soil loss, and nitrogen loss and its uptake by wheat in the rainfed lands of semi-arid regions. Application of the contour tillage is, therefore, the first step to conserve soil and water and to improve soil productivity in these regions.

Erosion under the conveying pipeline affected by river flow at the cross to rivers is one the important reasons for breaking the pipelines that can lead to leakage. While the mechanism of erosion under the conveying pipeline in steady flow has been studied by many researchers, studies have shown the importance of scouring research in flood times under unsteady conditions. So, this study has been concerned with the investigation of bed river erosion under the conveying pipeline at the conflict of river in unsteady condition. To achieve this aim, some effective hydrograph’s parameters were changed in different scenarios and the results were compared to the steady condition. The result showed the erosion’s ratio of unsteady condition to steady one was 34 to 69 percent. Also, the rise of flood hydrograph’s peak led to increasing depth erosion from 7% to 22%.

One of the reasons for soil salinization is the accumulation of salts in it by transmission through water and wind. In order to investigate the phenomenon of transfer of salts with dust in the arid regions of the north of Yazd- Ardakan plain, field samples were taken using 32 MDCO sediments traps with uniform dispersion in an area of 20,000 hectares at some stage in 4 seasons of 2017. After washing the sediment collector with a liter of distilled water in the field and transferring the samples to the laboratory, for the quantitative analysis of saline dust, similar to measuring the Water Electrical Conductivity (ECw), the Total Soluble Solids (TDS) were additionally measured through evaporation technique. The form and distribution of the dust particle size were additionally investigated using a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) tool. Within the qualitative examine of salts, effective cations and anions in salinity including Na+, K+, Ca++, Mg++, C1-, HCO-3 and SO-4 were measured The results confirmed that, in general, the fallout was 11.1 g.m-2 of soluble material with dust particles (13.28%) in the course of only 12 months. Particles with a diameter of 5 to 10 microns were the most frequent. Considering the high correlation between C1- and Na+ in the spring, autumn and winter, due to the high correlation between Ca++ and SO-4 in summer dust, sodium chloride (NaCl) and gypsum (CaSO4) 2H2O)), the most abundant composition of dust- containing salts could be expected in these seasons. By determining the percentage of solutes in the fallout dust, it was observed that the impact of the amount of the deposited salt from dust was slight and insignificant in the short time period; with the assumption of no change in the rate of subsidence, it was anticipated that it would explain the poor salinity in non- saline mass soils for up to 10 cm in 72 years. In general, the capability of airborne salt in increasing the soil salinity in the study area can be in long- term periods. Therefore, it is recommended to investigate other environmental effects of this phenomenon in order to identify its hazards.

Due to the impact of climate change on the plant water demand and the availability of water, especially in drylands, it is vital to estimate the evapotranspiration rates accurately. In this study, the vegetation status in the marginal desert areas of Varamin Plain was studied, and the actual evapotranspiration and water demand of intercropped farms were assessed. This study also evaluated the potential relationship between the evapotranspiration of different agricultural lands and their vegetation index using remote sensing techniques. A collection of satellite images from Landsat 7 in consecutive seasons was used to determine the greenness rate of marginal desert areas during 2013 and 2014. ENVI software was used for the image processing, which included geometric corrections and atmospheric corrections, to develop NDVI maps. Also, weather data and crop properties of Varamin Plain were collected, and the actual evapotranspiration rate of plant cover was estimated using CropWat. The correlation between NDVI extracted from satellite images and the evaluated evapotranspiration rate was assessed. The results showed a strong relationship between evapotranspiration of heterogeneous agricultural lands and NDVI. This confirmed that the NDVI derived by remote sensing approach could be a useful index to evaluate vegetation status and water demand of farmlands in the desert borders.

Wetting pattern in a trickle irrigation system is one of the most important characteristics that should be taken into consideration for designing the irrigation systems. Improving the dimensions of the wetting pattern will increase the water use efficiency and irrigation systems. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of rice husk and its biochar application on the wetting pattern in a silty clay soil under surface trickle irrigation. A box with the length of 200, the width of 50 and the height of 100 cm was used. To easily fill and empty the model, it was filled up to a height of 50 cm. The rice husk and its biochar were added to the soil at the rates of 0, 1 and 2 mass percentages based on a factorial arrangement of the treatments in a completely randomized design with three replications. Biochar was prepared in a special furnace at 500°C without oxygen. The experiments were done with a flow rate of 4 liters per hour with the irrigation time of 3 hours. The results of the analysis of variance showed that the organic treatments increased the soil water content in the range of field capacity to a permanent wilting point; the highest increase was observed for the biochar 2% treated soil. Also, the addition of rice husk and biochar in the silty clay soil reduced the horizontal advance and increased the vertical advance wetting pattern.

The conversion of forests to agricultural lands generally has damaging effects on soil qualitative indices. This study was conducted to investigate the effects of land use change on the physico- chemical and biological characteristics of the soils of Mokhtar Plain, Yasouj Region. Five soil samples (0- 30 cm) were taken from three land uses of dense forest, degraded forest, and dry farming. The physical, chemical and biological analyses were carried out in a completely randomized design. The results showed that by following the change in the forest land use to dry farming, the EC (56%), organic matter (67%), total nitrogen (71%), exchangeable potassium (48%), Basal respiration (42%), exhaled respiration (63%), fungi community (23%), acid phosphatase (59%), and alkaline phosphatase (79%) were decreased in the dry farming land use. However, the bacterial community (20%) and pH (5%) were increased in the dry farming land use and the amount of available phosphorus did not show any significant difference, as compared to the dense forest. In general, it can be concluded that by following forest degradation and change in land use, soil organic matter and its related indices, especially biological ones, are more affected. So, in order to maintain soil quality, appropriate management practices such as managed land use change, avoidance of tree cutting, especially on steep slopes, preventing of overgrazing, and addition of organic matter should be carried out in dry farming land use.

Synergistic relationships between mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and organic compounds affect the mobility of the micronutrient elements in the rhizosphere and improve their bioavailability. In order to evaluate the effect of biochar and pruning waste compost of apple and grape trees, as well as AMF, on micronutrient bioavailability in calcareous soil at the wheat rhizosphere, an experiment was carried out in a completely randomized design under greenhouse conditions in a rhizobox study. Some factors including the organic sourses (pruning waste biochar, pruning waste compost and control), microbial inoculation (AMF and no inoculation) were considered. At the end of the growth period, Organic matter (OM) content and bioavailability of micronutrients including iron (Fe), Zinc (Zn), Copper (Cu) and Manganese (Mn) in the rhizosphere and their uptake by wheat plant were determined. The results indicated that OM, Fe, Zn, Mn and Cu were significantly increased in the rhizosphere soil under the influence of organic sources and mycorrhizal inoculation. Furthermore, biochar application in the mycorrhizal tratment resulted in 74.73% and 19.28% increase in Fe and Mn, as compared to non-inoculated conditions, in rhizosphere. The presence of mycorrhizal fungi increased the bioavailability of 94.66% and 29.54% Zn and Cu in the compost treatment, as compared to non-inoculated ones. Application of organic sources and mycorrhizal inoculation increased the micronutrient uptake and plant dry weight.

The soil organic matter plays an important role in increasing agricultural products and various nutrient cycle in the soil due to its effect on the physical, chemical and biological properties of soil. There is, however, little information regarding the effect of growth promoting bacteria on biological indices and different forms of carbon in agricultural soils of the country. Therefore, this study was aimed to investigate the effect of plant growth promoting bacteria on soil respiration, microbial quotient, organic carbon, microbial carbon biomass, permanganate oxidizable carbon, cold water extractable organic C, and hot water extractable organic C under the cultivation of wheat, Chamran cultivar. The experiment was conducted in greenhouse condition as a randomized complete design with 9 replications. Treatments consisted of bacterium inoculation (without inoculation, Enterobacter cloacae Rhizo_33, Enterobacter cloacae Rhizo_R1and mixof both bacteria). During the experiment, some characteristics such as plant height and chlorophyll index were measured. At the end of the cultivation period, root and aerial part dry weight and grain yield were determined. Biological properties and different forms of carbon in the soil were measured after cultivation. The results indicated the applied plant growth promoting bacteria increased chlorophyll index, height, root and shoot dry weight and grain yield, as compared to the control. The minimum value of pH and the highest amount of each carbon forms were obtained by soil inoculation with different strains of bacteria, as compared to the control. The highest value of organic carbon was observed in the presence of the consortium of both bacteria with 22.7% increase, as compared to the control. The highest amount of microbial carbon biomass was, respectively, measured in the treatments containing consortium of bacteria, Enterobacter cloacae Rhizo_R1, Enterobacter cloacae Rhizo_33 with 87.67, 42 and 26.5% increment, as compared to the control. A positive and significant correlation was observed between cold and hot water extractable organic carbon, dissolved organic carbon and permanganate oxidizable carbon with soil respiration and there was a negative correlation between mentioned properties and the soil pH. The use of microbial inoculants increased the carbon content of the soil, which can play a positive role for improvement of  physical and chemical properties of the soil and plant yield.

Long- term exposure to street dust because of the potential toxicity of heavy metals can cause harmful effects on the human's health by inhalation, ingestion and dermal contact. In this study, 25 dust samples were collected from the sidewalks of the main streets of Ilam and analyzed by inductively coupled spectroscopy (ICP- OES) method. The mean concentration of the studied metals was: Pb (58.80), Zn (213.24), Cu (63.12), Cr (45.84), Cd (0.37), Ni (43.73) V (30.92) and As (5.00) (mg / kg). Based on the average value of the potential ecological risk (Er), the heavy metals of Pb, Zn, Cu, Cr, Ni and V had a low ecological risk and Cd showed a moderate one. The highest non- carcinogenic risk (HQ) in children and adults was related to As through ingestion and Cr through the dermal contact pathway; on the other hand, the lowest amount was due to the Cd via the inhalation. Cumulative non- carcinogenic hazard (HI) of all heavy metals in the street dust have been found to be higher for children rather than adults. In both age groups, Cr and Pb had the highest and lowest risk of carcinogenicity (RI), respectively. The obtained results, therefore, indicate that the main source of heavy metals in the study area is anthropogenic sources such as traffic, industrial facilities and fossil fuels burning.

In order to investigate the effect of new deficit irrigation strategies on the quantitative characteristics and water productivity of two field grown corn cultivars, a split plot experiment was conducted as a randomized design in three replications. The irrigation treatments included full irrigation treatment (FI), static deficit irrigation (SDI), dynamic deficit irrigation (DDI), static partial root zone drying irrigation (SPRD), which received 75% of ET during the growth period, dynamic partial root zone drying irrigation (DPRD), which received 90% of ET in the first one- third of the growth period, 75% of ET in the second one- third of growth period, and 50% of ET in the last one- third of the growth period. The results showed that there were significant differences between irrigation strategies. The SDI, DDI, SPRD and DPRD irrigation treatments decreased the corn yield by 18%, 27%, 49% and 53%, as compared to FI, respectively. The results also showed that there were no significant differences between cultivars. Compared to FI, the SDI increased WP by 14%, but DDI, SPRD and DPRD decreased WP by 3%, 19% and 44%, respectively. According to economic analysis, irrigation optimum depth for the maximum net profit was obtained to be 858.5 mm. In general, the SDI strategy is recommended in the study area.

Astragalus fasciculifolius is one of the most distributed plant species in the arid and semiarid regions of southern Iran. It may be well grown on roadside. This investigation was carried out to study the effect of road and its traffic intensity on the soil physicochemical properties and plant nutrients availability of roadside and to monitor the concentration of nutrients in the aerial parts of Astragalus fasciculifolius. Thirty soil and plant samples from roadside and 100 m distance from road were randomly collected and some physicochemical soil properties and nutrients availability were determined. Concentrations of the nutrients in the aerial parts of the plants were also determined. The results indicated that roadside soils had more sand and calcium carbonate equivalent than the adjacent lands. Soils of the main roadside had less K and more Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu than the adjacent lands; this difference in local road was observed only for Fe and Cu. Nutrients concentration in the aerial parts of the plants was affected by road, and P, K, Mn and Zn showed significant increases in the roadside plants. Concentrations of P, Fe, Zn and Cu in plants grown in main roadside and concentrations of Fe and Zn in plants grown in the local roadside were correlated with their contents in the soils. The effect of roads on soil properties change and nutrients availability may be related to the addition of road bed and emission of vehicles. Generally, it could be concluded that roadside soils had more suitable water and nutrition conditions for the growth of Astragalus fasciculifolius, as compared to the soils of the adjacent lands.

One of the main sources of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is the use of energy for groundwater pumping. Reducing energy consumption is very important to achieve the environmental sustainability and decrease the climate change impacts. In this paper, the amount of greenhouse gas emissions from groundwater pumping in the Guilan’s aquifers was investigated. Firstly, groundwater depletion and the types of pumps for water pumping were examined in the current condition; then, the values of consumed energy, GHG emissions and climate change indicator of the current condition were estimated. The primary investigations showed that 55 percent of wells in the studied region had a diesel engine pump, while 51.3 percent of the required energy for groundwater pumping was supplied by electric pump. Calculated total GHG emissions and the value of climate change indicator in the current condition were equal to 8.98 and 7.59 Milion kg CO2 eq , respectively. In order to achieve environmental sustainability and energy security, scenarios of replacing electric pumps and applying solar energy were examined. The results of the scenarios showed that diesel fuel wells had no significant effect on the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, but the use of solar energy reduced them. GHG emissions, in comparison with the base scenarios, were decreased by 44.4% in June, July and August, respectively, by applying the scenario of using the solar pump in agricultural section. Therefore, it is preferred to apply policies in future planning to use renewable energies such as solar energy instead of diesel and electricity energy.

Localized irrigation methods can be used to manage low water holding capacity in the sandy soils. In this research, the effects of different irrigation systems including pot, tape and drip irrigation with gravity pressures of 0.5, 1.5 and 3 meters on the sandy soil moisture distribution under watermelon cultivation were compared with the furrow irrigation as the control treatment. The moisture content of the soil at different depths and at the distance of 5 and 20 cm from the plant was measured using the TDR device. Water distribution study showed that in the pot irrigation method, the moisture content of different depths of soil was kept constant by 16% during the irrigation interval, but the highest moisture content was observed in gravitional drip irrigation treatment at the depths of 40, 50 and 60 cm; in contrast, the lowest amount of moisture was observed in the pot irrigation treatment. In tape and gravitional drip irrigation system with gravity pressure, in addition to the adjustment soil moisture up to 15 to 22% within the wetting front, soil moisture can be kept almost constant by pulsed irrigation technique. Therefore, while providing the use of drip irrigation system with minimum water pressure available in most of the agricultural land (0.5 m), using pot irrigation can ensure sandy soil moisture retention and soil for the cultivation of fruits such as watermelon plants.

Constructed wetland as a purification system plays an important role in water and wastewater treatment and so many research studies have been conducted to examine their efficiency for wastewater treatment. The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of constructed wetland for Arak wastewater treatment plant. In this research, the efficiency of three horizontal subsurface constructed wetlands built with 3*12 meters in dimensions and 1 meter in depth was examined. In these constructed wetlands, two plants including Common reed (Phragmites australis) and Cattails (Typha latifolia) were planted and one unit was left unplanted. TSS, COD, BOD and TC parameters were measured in the 2 week samples and the results were analyzed by SPSS and Excel. The results showed that the type of vegetation had no significant influence on the organic matter removal in the subsurface constructed wetlands; however, the removal efficiencies in the planted constructed wetlands were more than those in the unplanted control one. The TSS, COD, BOD, FC and TC removal efficiency in the constructed wetlands changes was 79%, 60.7%, 45.6%, 86.1% and 90.1%, respectively, for Common reed wetland and 77%, 61.4%, 59.8%, 92.4% and 93.1%, respectively, for Cattails wetland; thee were 69%, 44.5%, 43%, 83.6% and 88.8% for the  unplanted wetland, respectively. The results of this research also showed that the organic matter removal was dependent on the influent organics nature and biodegradability. The organic concentration in the wetland effluents met the Iranian regulation limits for different reuse applications, showing the constructed wetland could be a suitable technology for wastewater treatment in Iran.

In this study, the groundwater level (GWL) of the Sarab Qanbar region located in the south of Kermanshah, Iran, was estimated using the Wavelet- Self- Adaptive Extreme Learning Machine (WA- SAELM) model. An artificial intelligence method called “Self- Adaptive Extreme Learning Machine” and the “Wavelet transform” method were implemented for developing the numerical model. First, by using the autocorrelation function (ACF), the partial autocorrelation function (PACF) and the effective lags in estimating GWL, eight distinctive SAELM and WA- SAELM models were developed. Later, the values of the observational well were normalized for estimating GWL. Next, the most optimized mother wavelet was chosen for the modeling. By evaluating the results of SAELM and WA- SAELM, it was concluded that the WA- SAELM models could estimate the values of the objective function with higher accuracy. Then, the superior model was introduced, showing that it could be very accurate in forecasting the GWL. In the test mode, for example, the values of R (correlation coefficient), Main absolute error (MAE) and the NSC- Sutcliffe efficiency coefficient (NSC) for the superior model were calculated to be 0.995, 0.988 and 0.990, respectively. Furthermore, an uncertainty analysis was conducted for the numerical models, proving that the superior model had an underestimated performance.

In this study, to evaluate the rain- fed land capability in the west of Gavkhooni basin and Plasjn sub- basin, a multi- criteria evaluation method was used. First, by reviewing the literature and expert knowledge, proper data were determined. Criteria and constraint were standardized by Fuzzy and Boolean methods repeatedly and the criteria weights were determined using the analytic hierarchy process. Calculated weights showed that soil and climate criteria with 0.27 and 0.26 had the highest weights among other criteria. Criteria and constraints were combined by considering criteria weights and using the weighted linear combination method; then the rain- fed land capability model was prepared. By re- classing the prepared model, the rain- fed land capability map was produced in 6 capability classes. The results showed that 178430 hectares of the study area was related to very high and high rain- fed capability classes. To determine the rain-fed agriculture sustainability, rain- fed agriculture locations were determined in each land rain- fed capability map. The results showed that 19686 hectares of rain- fed areas were located in high and very high capability and 5999 hectares were the in lower classes.

Groundwater supplies a major portion of two basic human needs: drinking and agricultural water. Forecasting, monitoring, evaluating the performance and planning of this vital resource require modelling. The lag time of the groundwater level fluctuations against the rainfall is one of the essential data of the models. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the piezometers behaviour by using the Pearson cross-correlation method between SPI and GRI indices in the Shiraz alluvial plain in order to determine the mentioned lag time. The results showed a similar behaviour for 86.2% of the piezometers. In 79.3% of the piezometers, groundwater level was declined one month after the rainfall event. The best correlation coefficient between the aforementioned indices was observed along the southwestern to the northeastern axis of the plain. The northern alluvial plain has a better correlation, as compared to the southern section because of the northern-southern slope of the plain. The central area of the plain had the highest correlation coefficient. The maximum correlation coefficients occurred at a time scale of 48 months. Also, since 2004, due to the decline in the atmospheric precipitation in the Shiraz plain, the SPI index has surpassed the drought level, although the trend has not been significant. However, the GRI does not follow this trend, showing a significant hydrological drought. The reason can be the disproportionate water extraction to recharge ratio in the alluvial aquifer of the plain.

Drought as a natural hazard is a gradual phenomenon, slowly affecting an area; it may last for many years and can have devastating effects on the natural environment and in human lives. Although drought forecasting plays an important role in the planning and management of water resource systems, the random nature of contributing factors contributing to the occurrence of and severity of droughts causes some difficulties in determination of the time when a drought begins or ends. The present research was planned to evaluate the capability of linear stochastic models, known as multiplicative Seasonal Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (SARIMA) model, in the quantitative forecasting of drought in Isfahan province based on the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI). To this end, the best SARIMA models were chosen for modelling the monthly rainfall data from 1990 to 2017 for every 10 synoptic stations in Isfahan province to forecast their monthly rainfall up to five years. The monthly time scale SPI values based on these predictions were used to assess the drought severity of different stations for the 2018- 2022 time period. The station results indicated a weak drought at the 2019- 2022 period for Isfahan, Kashan and Naeen, a severe drought in 2019 for Ardestan and Golpaygan, and a weak one in 2019 for the East of Isfahan, KabootarAbad and Shahreza stations. All other stations, except Golpayegan, Isfahan, Kashan and Naeen, faced a severe drought in 2018.

Water scarcity is the most important factor constraining agricultural production all over the world and water shortage in agriculture must be established to use the deficit irrigation. In order to study the effects of the regulated deficit irrigation and partial root zone drying on the growth traits of Rosmarinus Officinalis L., an experiment was conducted in the center of seed and plant production of IranShahr municipality in 2017. The experiment treatments were arranged as a randomized complete block design with three replications. The irrigation regimes consisted of full irrigation, regulated deficit (RDI75 and RDI55) and partial root zone drying irrigation (PRD75 and PRD55). The results showed that deficit irrigation at 75 and 55 percent of full irrigation resulted in saving 18.6 and 34.3 percent of water consumption, respectively. Comparison of full irrigation and PRD75 showed that dry weight, height of plants and number of shoots per plant were decreased by 6.7, 14.3 and 12.1 percent, respectively. However, proper development of root in PRD75 increased 12.9 percent of water productivity. Therefore, by considering the problems of water scarcity, it is possible to provide PRD75 as a superior treatment and a suitable strategy to cope with the water crisis in order to move towards a sustainable agricultural system.

Sediments are the sink where various contaminants accumulate; they are an inseparable component of ecosystems; among heavy metals are very important because of their harmful effects on the ecosystems and their long extremely long persistency. The present study was conducted to determine the concentration and contamination degree of heavy metals (Iron, Zinc, Copper, Manganese and Nickel) in the coastal sediments of Bushehr Port. In order to sampling sediments, a distance of 10 km was considered. Acid digestion method was used to prepare the samples for metal analysis. Also, the physical properties of the sediments were measured using the standard methods. The metal enrichment and contamination status in the sediments were determined using the contamination degree (Cd), the modified degree of contamination (mCd), the contamination factor (CF), the enrichment factor (EF), and the geoaccumulation index (Igeo). Based on the results, the distribution of heavy metals in sediments were obtained as Ni Fe> Mn > Zn > Cu >. In the present study, due to the distance between Asalouyeh and Bushehr port, a low nickel concentration was obtained. The results of Igeo and other indices showed that the surface sediments of the study were uncontaminated. Comparison of heavy metals in Bushehr Port sediments with sediment quality standards showed that the concentration of metals in this study was less than the standard levels. As a result, the Coastline of Bushehr port was not contaminatied with iron, zinc, copper, manganese, and nickel metals. The study, therefore, indicated that although there were slight changes in these indices, the combination of the indices could give us a comprehensive cognition of heavy metals risks in the surface sediments of the Bushehr Port.

Benthos play an important role in the transmission of primary production and organic material (detritus) accumulation of the substrate in the water ecosystems to the higher levels of food chain. Also, they are used as biological indicators to evaluate the effect of pollutants caused by human activities on water ecosystems. To evaluate the benthic communities of Zayanderood Dam Lake, 4 sampling stations were selected on the lake; then, during the year 2014, seasonal sampling at each station was performed. The sampling was carried out by using the sediment sampler instrument with the dimensions of (20 cm × 20 cm). The average temperature of surface and deep water in the Zayanderood Dam Lake during the study was estimated to be 15.6 ± 2.4 and 8.9 ± 1.8°C, respectively. The average concentration of dissolved oxygen in the surface and deep water was varied from 10.3 ± 0.6 to 8.1 ± 0.7 mg/L, respectively. Totally, 2165 samples of benthos were collected and identified in the Zayanderood Dam Lake, belonging to 3 classes, 6 orders and 5 families. The maximum number of samples belonged to Tubifex, Naididae and Chironomidae genera. The dominant genus was Tubifex in all stages. According to this study, therefore, it seems that the structure of substrate, the amount of nutrients, grazing pressure and hydrostatic pressure are the most important environmental factors that can affect benthic community in the Zayanderood Dam Lake.

One of the ways to increase water productivity in agriculture is the use of new irrigation systems; for the precise design of these systems, water quality assessment is needed. The purpose of this study was to study the groundwater quality of Khorramabad plain for the implementation of drip irrigation systems. The qualitative indices of EC, SAR, TDS, TH, Na and pH were related to the statistical years 2006-2012. In this research, the data were normalized first and it was determined that the data were abnormal; so, the logarithmic method was used for normalization. To evaluate the groundwater quality of the area, land use methods were used. Among different methods, the ordinary kriging interpolation method with the least root mean square error for all parameters was used. Quality zoning maps showed that in the north and southwest, EC and SAR concentrations were in poor condition in terms of qualitative classification. TDS had a concentration of more than 4000 milligramrels, and Na had a concentration of more than 15 milligrams / ltr. In these areas, TH with the concentration of more than 730 mg / l had the highest contamination; in the central area of the plain, there was a higher risk of carbonate sediments. LSI rates in the western regions were more than one, which included about 12% of the plain; there were restrictions on the implementation of droplet systems in these areas. The best quality for implementing these systems was located in the south-east of the plain, covering 19% of the plain. Finally, the integrated map of qualitative characteristics showed that the maximum concentration of qualitative characteristics was located in the northern, central and southern regions, which included 62.29% of the plain area.

This study was conducted to evaluate AquaCrop for the simulation of potato yield and water use efficiency (WUE) under different water stress values at five levels (E0, E1, E2, E3 and E4, indicating 100, 85, 70, 50 and 30 percent of crop water needed, respectively) in three times during growth cycles (T1, T2, and T3, indicating 50, 100, and 150 days after sowing, respectively). The results showed that AquaCrop had overestimated and underestimated error for the simulation of yield and WUE, respectively. Based on RMSE and NRMSE values, the errors for yield and WUE were acceptable. The maximum and minimum error were also 0.3 (E1T3) and 3.15 (E1T2), respectively. The results obtained for WUE showed that the maximum and minimum were 0.53 (E3T2) and 0.03 (E4T2), respectively. The average differences between simulated and observed results (ADSO) of WUE for E1, E2, E3 and E4 were 0.24, 0.25, 0.19, and 0.44 ton.ha-1, respectively; the ADSO of yield for T1, T2, and T3 was 0.19, 0.36, and 0.22 ton.ha-1, respectively. Therefore, AquaCrop showed a high error for WUE when water stress was increased and crop was in its initial crop growth.

The estimation of reference crop evapotranspiration (ETo) is one the important factors in hydrological studies, irrigation planning, and water resources management. This study attempts to explore the possibility of predicting this key component using three different methods in the Sistan plain: Generalized Linear Models (GLM), Random Forest (RF) and Gradient Boosting Trees (GBT). The maximum and minimum temperature, mean temperature, maximum and minimum humidity, mean humidity, rainfall, sunshine hours, wind speed, and pan evaporation data were applied for years between 2009 to 2018. Using various networks, the ETo as output parameter was estimated for different scenarios including the combination of daily scale meteorological parameters. In order to evaluate the capabilities of different models, results were compared with the ETo calculated by FAO Penman-Monteith as the standard method. Among studied scenarios, M1 covering the maximum number of input parameters (10 parameters) showed the highest accuracy for GBT model, with the lowest RMSE (0.633) and MAE (0.451) and the maximum coefficient of regression (R = 0.993). Air temperature was found as the most sensitive parameters during sensitivity analysis of studied models. It indicated that accuracy and precision of temperature data can improve the results. Application of the GBT model could decrease the time consumed to run the model by 70%. Therefore, the GBT model is recommended for estimation of ETo in the Sistan plain.

Water resources management depends on the precise assessment of water storage and access in each region, as well as environmental interactions of these resources. The man objective of this study was to delineate the potential zones of groundwater storage using FAHP. Mapping and assessment of it required maps of geomorphology, drainage, density, lineament density, slope and vegetation, which were initially prepared as the input layers in FAHP; the appropriate weights were attributed to them based on FAHP. Potential zones of ground water were classified into five classes of poor, average, good, very good and excellent. The number and density of available wells and springs in the study area dealt with the potential of the region for groundwater storage. So, ROC was used to assess the validation of results, considering spring points as signs of water resources. According to the results, classes of very good, good, average, weak, and very weak were ranked as the first to the last in terms of privilege order with an area of 37.7, 55, 40, 107, and 98.4 square kilometers, respectively.