مجله مدیریت آب و آبیاری
سال سیزدهم شماره 3 (پاییز 1402)

In recent years, the improper increase of agricultural activities along riverbanks and discharge of household, agricultural, and industrial wastewater into them has led to a significant reduction in the quality of surface water. Polluted or contaminated water sources can have a negative impact on the entire life cycle. In this study, the trend of changes in the water quality of Neka River, from its source to its connection to the Caspian Sea, has been investigated. Samples were collected at three different points along the river during different seasons in 2021 and were analyzed using IRWQIsc and NSFWQI standards. Results showed that, based on the IRWQIsc index, the river is relatively good quality, and according to the NSFWQI index, it is of moderate quality, but at station 3, the river's quality is relatively poor using both indexes. The overall water quality follows a downward trend from the source to the outlet, with greater declines in quality during warmer seasons due to increased agricultural activities in the river basin, with the largest decrease in quality observed in spring and the smallest decrease in quality in the colder seasons, especially in winter.

The main purpose of this article is to investigate the issue of human health due to the continuous consumption of nitrate-contaminated underground water among people of different age groups in the vicinity of Lahijan depot. Therefore, in this study, 34 groundwater samples were collected during the wet (November) and dry (September) seasons, and the main ions were analyzed in the laboratory. Nitrate concentration in the wet season varied from 18 to 30 mg/L with an average of 24.2 mg/L and in the dry season from 8 to 24 mg/L with an average of 14.5 mg/L. The amount of NPI nitrogen pollution index showed that in the wet season, 23% of the samples are healthy and 77% of the sample locations have low pollution, and in the dry season, 82% of the samples are healthy and 18% of the samples have low pollution. The noncarcinogenic risk assessment model showed that health issues are among different age groups, including infants, children, youth, adults, and the elderly. The results of the carcinogenic risk showed that in the wet season, 65% of the underground water samples and in the dry season, 18% of the samples are unsuitable for drinking by the age group of 6 to 12 months. Identified sources of nitrates include nitrate sources found in the study area, anthropogenic activities such as Lahijan landfill and village residents' waste. Therefore, periodic water inspection, health check-up and common treatment plant in rural areas are corrective measures that should be taken to reduce the severe effects of nitrate-contaminated drinking water in the study area.

There is a number of evidence for the construction of weirs and diversion dams in river bends, and sometimes building water intakes on both sides of the river bend are needed. However, this encounters problems in terms of asymmetry of flow distribution into the intake structures. Most recent studies have been conducted for clear water flow conditions. The main purpose of this study was to investigate the uniformity of sediment transporting flows into bilateral intakes on both sides of a spillway in a channel bend. FLOW-3D numerical model was used to test the effects of intake angle, intake sill and sluice way on the uniformity of flow and sediment load entering the intakes and the distribution of sediment deposits in the intake area. The numerical model was calibrated and confirmed based on the information of the physical model for clear water flow conditions. Then, the numerical model for sediment transport flow was validated and adjusted, and it was implemented for seven scenarios of the arrangement of the weir and its related structures in the channel bend. The results showed that the most of the sediment deposition is towards the inner-bend intake. Without the intake sill and sluiceway, the ratio of outer to inner intake for five intake angles of zero, 30, 50, 60 and 90 degrees is about 2.1, 3.8, 5.0, 4.17 and 2.4, respectively. Using a 90-degree intake is more efficient due to less sediment entry and uniform inflow distribution to both bilateral intakes. Inclusion of sill and sluiceway in the intake system results in the reduction of the ratio of outer to inner intake to be reduced to 1.1 and 1.3 for the two intake angles of zero and 90 degrees, respectively. The results show that it is necessary to use the intake sill and the sluice way to control the sediments entering to the intakes, especially in inner intake.

The present article proposes a model using the inverse problem to find locations and pumping discharges of ‎‎unknown wells. The simulation is performed by using the two-dimensional groundwater flow equation, which is solved by ‎the finite difference numerical technique. The learning automata algorithm has been used as a tool for ‎optimization. ‎The simulation and the optimization models are linked to obtaining the final model. To identify the ‎location and discharge of the unknown wells, the proposed model changes the discharges of the wells and studies ‎the influence on the objective function which is the root mean square error of the calculated and observed ‎‎piezometric head. The wells which increase the objective function are deleted. After the completion of this ‎stage, the locations of the wells are moved to the vicinity in all directions and the locations which yield fewer ‎errors in terms of the objective function will result in the final locations. To check the efficiency of this ‎model, two hypothetical aquifers were used in ‎a steady and unsteady flow state, in which there are some ‎unknown wells. The prepared model showed the ‎ability to determine these wells' number, location, and flow rate ‎with the accuracy of the root mean square error of 0.061 meters in the first numerical example and 0.010 in the second numerical example.

Experimental investigation of embankment dams due to overtopping breach is a remarkable subject because it is the most possible failure reason, and it includes a complicated process. The mentioned phenomenon physical modeling has performed at energy ministry water research institute, hydraulics laboratory, and its hydraulic outputs compared with a benchmark model outcome in three scenarios framework. The results reveal that the breach process of physical models comprises three stages: i.e., initiation, development, and the end. Also, the development time is longer than that of the other stages. In first scenario, when shell gradation  varied from 0.5mm to 1.7mm, 26 percent of peak discharge increased and 14 percent of breach time decreased. In second scenario in which lake water level maintained at overtopping threshold for two hours (for more saturation), 15 percent of peak discharge and 14 percent of breach time declined. In third scenario where the primary breach groove did not excavate, the highest difference in comparison with benchmark model results occurred, when 34 percent of peak discharge grew and 24 percent of breach time reduced. Moreover, asymmetrical sedimentation pattern happened in the last scenario. The Calculation of eroded material volume and mass was sedimentation pattern determination harvest. Herein, the simultaneous measurements of breach geometry, flow hydrograph, and final sedimentation pattern are the research unique achievements. However, further acquired analysis would be influential for the embankment dam's failure phenomenon management.

All over the world, women are more dependent on natural resources due to the responsibility of providing food, water and fuel, and for this reason, climate change and the subsequent reduction of water resources will especially affect women. From the point of view of global research and UN documents, women are one of the pillars of development and the key to the success of water policies. This importance has been highlighted in the United Nations sustainable development documents. In Iran's development plans over the past years, despite mentioning the importance of women's participation and the role of women in the development process, Ther is not a specific plan regarding the role of women in the sustainable development of water. Only in Article 17 of bylaw of the 4th Development Plan, the role of women in water resources management is mentioned, but a specific plan for women's participation and intervention in the water sector has never been formulated. This article was carried out with the method of qualitative content analysis of UN development documents and comparative analysis of these documents with the first to sixth development plans with the aim of determining what approach and attitude the programmers have regarding the empowerment of women in the field of water resources. The findings of the research show that in the country's development plans, attention to the position and role of women in the management of the country's water resources as both victims and policy makers of the country's water crisis has been neglected. Therefore, it is suggested that development programmers pay special attention to the empowerment and participation of women in water resources management to compensate the backwardness of this sector.

Water budget evaluations are important research topics in various regions of the world, as they aim to determine one or more components of the water balance. To estimate these components accurately, it is necessary to have adequate knowledge and methods. Therefore, reviewing the common methods used in international models can help to improve the estimation of water resources budget. The present study seeks to identify the challenges of groundwater budget estimation and to propose solutions for enhancing the accuracy of calculations, based on a critical analysis of previous studies conducted in Hashtgerd from 1987 to 2022. A three-level analysis was performed at the technical, institutional-structural, and infrastructural levels. The technical analysis of water budget components indicates that in the recent periods, the total output and input of groundwater were 257 and 245 MCM, respectively. Moreover, the average storage deficit was estimated at 18 MCM, which showed an increasing trend. This research suggests several measures to address the challenges, such as: equipping the study area with hardware facilities (lysimeters and data loggers); revising and updating the monitoring network of observation wells in the region; using remote sensing techniques to estimate evapotranspiration and other water budget components; updating the hydrodynamic information of the aquifer; measuring the withdrawal amount from exploitation wells and Qanats at a frequency of less than five years with more accurate methods; and establishing facilities for recording and displaying online components of the water budget in Hashtgerd at different scales. In this regard, the need for conducting water resources budget studies is emphasized, considering the uncertainties associated with the estimation of inputs and outputs.

With the aim of increasing water, food and energy productivity, this study was carried out in two stages to develop and validate a tool for evaluating agricultural management strategies in relation to the link between water, food and energy security (NEXUS). In the first part, using the WA+ water accounting framework, with the aim of analyzing the parameters of hydro climatology, the four worksheets of basic resources, evaporation and transpiration, harvesting of water resources and productivity of the Plasjan watershed were calculated and management scenarios were determined to increase productivity, and in the second part, management scenarios with The NEXUS approach were evaluated and prioritized. The results of WA+ showed that in the Plasjan basin, the high volume of evaporation and transpiration was useless. In the second part of this research, among the 4 main scenarios (48 sub-scenarios) introduced to improve productivity, the scenarios of cultivar change and irrigation treatment, change of cultivated area and rainfed cultivation with supplementary irrigation had a positive effect on water, food and energy productivity index. After prioritizing the influential sub-scenarios with the TOPSIS multi-criteria decision-making model, the sub-scenario of wheat variety 6 with full irrigation treatment had the most positive effect on water, food and energy productivity and was identified as an indicator scenario for evaluating productivity in agricultural management.

In this study, the entering runoff to Makhmalkooh Dam; in Lorestan province; was studied under climate change scenarios. For this using, the data of precipitation, maximum and minimum temperature and sunshine for the study area in the basic time of 1980-2014 were downscaled with LARS-WG6 model and after choosing the IPSL-CM6A-LR-INCA model as the most compatible model with the study area among the 26 models in the sixth IPCC report, precipitation, minimum and maximum temperature and sunshine were estimated for Kakareza station in three times of 2026-2050, 2051-2075 and 2076-2100 under SSP scenarios. After that, the entering runoff to Makhmalkooh dam was estimated in the future periods under the SSP scenarios using the IHACRES model and the results obtained from the previous step. The results of this study showed that the entering runoff the studied dam will decrease on monthly and seasonal scale in all future periods under SSP climate scenarios. The highest runoff in the monthly scale was predicted in October under the SSP5-8.5 scenario, and the lowest decrease was predicted in May under the SSP1-2.6 scenario. On seasonal scale, the highest amount of reduction in entering runoff to the dam was estimated in the autumn season under the SSP5-8.5 scenario, and the lowest amount of reduction was estimated in the spring season under the SSP1-2.6 scenario. The results of this study also showed that the climate change will have significant effect on entering runoff to Makhmalkooh dam and therefore, the impacts of this phenomenon should be considered in water resources development plans to reduce its damages for posterity.

Current research was carried out as a pot experiment in order to investigate the effect of different biochar levels (zero (Bi0), one (Bi1) and two (Bi2) percent of soil mass) and nitrogen fertilizer (from the urea source) (zero (F0), 150 (F150) and 300 (F300) kg/ha) on spinach (cv. Viroflay) yield and fertilizer productivity. The experiment was done from September 2021 to January 2022 as a factorial experiment based on randomized complete blocks design with four replications in the research greenhouse of agricultural faculty of Zanjan University. Fertilizing was done as fertigation in three splits with an interval of 10 days. Results showed, using one and two percent biochar were significantly increased means of leaf chlorophyll index 15% and 34% (respectively) and leaf area 14% and 34% (respectively) compared to the control treatment. In F150 and F300 treatments compared to F0, means of leaf chlorophyll index increased 64% and 110% (respectively) and leaf area increased 30% and 58% (respectively). Based on the results of interaction effects, maximum mean of petiole length, fresh and dry mass of plant and fertilizer productivity were achieved in Bi2-F300 treatment (respectively 6.1 cm, 10.1 gr and 24.0 kg/kg). Based on the research results, biochar application in soil is suggested to increase fertilizer productivity which reduces the harmful effects of using chemical fertilizers on the environment.

ICSS model has been used in various researches in irrigation canals. Due to the new capabilities of recent versions of the HEC-RAS model and its advanced strategies, this model has also been considered. The combination of upstream and downstream control systems of classical controller with nonlinear channel simulation models (HEC-RAS and ICSS), the way of implement, and the results comparison are the main objectives of this research. The utilization of the rules strategy in HEC-RAS and comparison of the model is the novelty of this research. For this purpose, a controller has been developed for each regulating structure and an operational program has been developed for each turnout in advanced boundary conditions in the Eastern Dez Canal. The results showed that the HEC-RAS model performed very well and showed a lower error value in the upstream control system than the downstream control, and the maximum MAE and IAE were equal to 5.3% and 1.8%, respectively. Also, the water flow is stable most of the time and there are no fluctuations in the water depth. In the ICSS model, almost similar results were observed, so that the upstream control performs better than the downstream control, but there are more depth changes and instability, and the maximum MAE and IAE were obtained as 9.9% and 0.3%, respectively. In terms of discharge delivery indicators, HEC-RAS outperformed ICSS.

In this research, 23 soil samples with specific geographical characteristics were collected to investigate and monitor salinity changes in the region. Using the Sentinel-2 and Landsat-8 sensors, seven vegetation cover indices and five salinity indices were examined and evaluated in the GEE environment, resulting in a total of 240 outputs from the two sensors. To assess the modeled values, several statistical indices including root mean square error (RMSE), coefficient of determination (R2), normalized root mean square error (NRMSE), and percent bias (PBIAS) were utilized. The results indicated that the SI-2 index exhibited the highest correlation with the measured salinity values in the region, with an R2 value of 0.91, demonstrating its accuracy in estimating salinity levels. In the next step, a multiple regression model was employed to investigate the mean values of measured ECe (electrical conductivity of the saturation extract) and the vegetation indices GDVI (Green Difference Vegetation Index) and CRSI (Crop Salt Stress Index) obtained from the Sentinel-2 sensor, which showed the highest correlation with the salinity data. The results demonstrated that the two-variable regression model achieved a satisfactory accuracy with an R2 value of 0.84 and a PBIAS value of 0.01 in producing a salinity map of the area. Therefore, this model can be utilized as a cost-effective approach for salinity mapping in the region with minimal ground-based data. Furthermore, the investigation of the impact of constructing a barrier drain in the area revealed that the construction of a barrier drain within a distance of 250 meters had a significant effect of approximately 40 percent in controlling salinity. It was able to prevent a substantial increase in salinity levels in the region. Therefore, if a barrier drain is not constructed in the area, salinity progression in the upstream agricultural lands could significantly escalate.

Improper water distribution and delivery will cause poor performance of irrigation networks which requires improvement. Improvement of delivery method from rotational to arranged method increases farmers’ flexibility in irrigation management, improves water use productivity, and decreases water losses. In addition to higher flexibility, arranged delivery does not need expensive infrastructures and could be implemented in existing networks with manual operation. One of the important problems in the design of irrigation networks is the calculation of the canal capacity which is more complex for arranged delivery methods. Clements’model is used for the determination of canal capacity for arranged delivery. In this research, the application of Clements’ model in determining the capacity of two canals in the Ghazvin irrigation network and arranged delivery is investigated. The probability distribution function of water delivery to the tertiary intakes is determined. The results show that the best distribution function is the extreme value function. However, Clements’ model with the assumption of normal distribution for the requests shows acceptable performance for canal capacity determination. The level of flexibility of water delivery is a function of the degree of freedom of farmers and the possibility of simultaneous water exploitation of intakes. Considering the existing canal capacity, and calculated required canal capacity the attainable flexibility in the studied canals is determined. The results showed that for the degree of freedom equal to 1, the existing capacity of both canals allows all intakes to receive water simultaneously. For an accumulative probability of 75 percent, the degree of freedom could be increased up to 35, and 59 percent.

Identification of homologous hydrological groups is one of the fundamental topics in hydrology in both applied and research dimensions. One of the common methods to achieve homogeneous hydrological zones for estimating flood zones is the use of clustering methods. In this study, the using, evaluation and comparison of statistical methods and methods based on artificial intelligence for clustering Karkheh catchment have been investigated. SOM, K-meansand hierarchical clustering were used for the study area. In the following, the study of hydrological homogeneity of the obtained areas was evaluated using the linear torque method and the heterogeneity adjustment was evaluated using the methods proposed by Husking and Wallis. The results show that the study area can be converted into two clusters. The values ​​of homogeneity statistics for the first and second clusters were calculated to be 0.33 and 0.17, respectively, which indicates the homogeneity of each region. Due to the short statistical period in some stations, statistical shortcomings and the reliability of the results of regional frequency analysis, this method should be used in estimating floods in other catchments.

This study compared three different snowmelt scenarios using a monthly water balance model in the Taleghan-Alamut Basin in north of Iran. Three scenarios were tested in this study: a temperature-based, a net radiation-based, and an energy balance-based. Remote sensing data were utilized to mitigate the challenges of modeling snowmelt in a basin with limited ground information. The calibration and validation processes were carried out in a two-stage method. First, snow modeling was conducted grid-based throughout the basin, and the model parameters were validated. Using snow cover observed by the MODIS sensor, the model dispcipancy between computed and observed snow accumulation was calculated by comparing the percentage of to the calculated snow storage in each cell of the basin. In the second stage, the other model parameters were calibrated as a lumpt hydrologic model across the basin. Ultimately, the net radiation-based and energy balance-based models showed superior performance compared to the temperature-based model. During the validation period, the Kling-Gupta efficiency metric for the temperature-based snowmelt model was 0.72, while for the net radiation-based and energy balance-based models were 0.78 and 0.86, respectively. Additionally, the correlation coefficient between MODIS snow cover data and snow storage calculated in the three models ranged from 0.62 for the energy balance-based model to 0.72 for the temperature-based model. According to the results, the proposed methodology is suitable for assessing snow budget and the snow hydrology in mountainous areas with limited data availability.