JWSS - Journal of Water and Soil Science

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One of the simple methods for erosion control, flood mitigation and flood damage reduction in the streams is building the checkdams. The present study was carried out to evaluate the performance of checkdams, location across the streams in the retention of the fine sediments in Droudzan watershed in Southern Iran. For this purpose, a number of streams with many stabilized check dams which were more than 27 years old were selected. For each stream, three check dams (one at the far beginning (upstream), the second one at the middle and the third one at the far downstream) were selected. In each stream, a number of samples were taken from retained sediment behind the selected check dams and also original soil was taken from both sides of the same check dams. Laboratory analysis on the size of particles and also texture of soil and sediment samples showed that in general, soils taken from both sides of the check dams were finer than sediment behind the same check dams. Comparison of particle sizes showed in all streams except Joobkhaleh (with extensive tree coverage) the performance of the third check dams (far downstream) in fine sediment retention is much better than the second one (at the middle) and the second one is more effective than the first one (upstream). Comparison of sands, silt, and clay percentage of soil and sediment also showed that in all streams except Joobkhaleh the clay and silt percentage behind the third check dam is more than the second check dam and that of the second check dam is more than the third one (upstream). In the same way, results showed that the sand retained behind the first check dam, was more than the sand behind the second and first checkdams, respectively. Therefore, if the retention of the fine sediments is the main purpose of the check dam construction, it is recommended that they be built in the far downstream rather than in the upstream of waterways.