JWSS - Journal of Water and Soil Science

Given the fact that the DRASTIC index is ineffective in addressing the saltwater uprising issue in coastal plains, in the present study, three factors including land use, distance to shoreline, and differences between groundwater and sea level were added to the DRASTIC index. The proposed modification to DRASTIC was validated using the measured electrical conductivity (EC) data gathered from groundwater monitoring wells throughout the Talesh Plain. The results showed that the coefficient of correlation between the map of EC over the region and the modified DRASTIC was 0.52, while for the original DRASTIC, the coefficient was 0.45, thereby implying a stronger relationship between EC and the modified DRASTIC in the Talesh Plain. Sensitivity analysis also showed that DRASTIC and the modified DRASTIC were the most sensitive to, respectively, depth to groundwater (D) and land use (Lu). According to the single-parameter sensitivity analysis results, depth to water table and net recharge were the most effective parameters in DRASTIC,  whereas the modified DRASTIC was the most sensitive to land use and depth to groundwater. It could be concluded that modifying the DRASTIC index would result in decreasing the area of very high and high vulnerable classes, and the area classified as low and moderate vulnerable could be increased.

Today, one of the biggest challenges facing the world is the lack of water, especially in the agricultural sector. In this research, we investigated the effects of irrigation method and deficit irrigation with the urban refined effluent on biomass, grain yield, yield components and water use efficiency in single grain crosses 704 maize. This research was carried out in a randomized complete block design with two irrigation systems (furrow irrigation (F) and drip irrigation (T)) and three levels of deficit irrigation treatments of 100 (D₁), 75 (D₂) and 55 (D₃) percent of water requirements in three replications, in 2017, at the collage of Abourihan Research field, University of Tehran, in Pakdasht County. The results showed that the highest yield of biomass was 2.426 Kg m^-2 for full drip irrigation treatments; also, there was no significant difference between D₁ and D₂ treatments. The highest grain yield was 1.240 kg m^-2 for the complete drip irrigation treatment. The highest biomass water use efficiency was obtained for the treatment of 75% drip irrigation, which was equal to 5.3 kg per cubic meter of water. Therefore, a drip irrigation system with 75% water requirement is optimal and could be recommended.

Surge tanks and air chambers are the most useful solution to deal with water hammer in water transmission systems (WTS). The optimal design of these protective devices can be effective in reducing the costs of constructing and operating a water transmission system. In this article, some software with the capability of simulating and optimizing these protective equipment is presented. To simulate the behavior of the system in the transient condition, the characteristic method was used. To optimize the number, dimensions and location of the surge tanks and air chambers, the genetic algorithm was employed. Constraints of the problem included the control of negative and positive pressures within the permissible range to prevent the cavitation and water hammer. To test the performance of simulation and optimization models, a well-known water transmission system in the previous research was selected as a case study. The results indicated that the critical heads were damped to a safer and allowable range; also, the total cost of the surge tanks and air chambers was reduced by 17% by the proposed method.

The main purpose of the study is the operational simulation of main irrigation canal and evaluation of water delivery and distribution locally, regionally and overall using adequacy, efficiency, and equity indicators and “Desirability of water delivery and distribution” indicator. To achieve this goal, the hydrodynamic model of Roodasht irrigation network’s main canal was developed. The results of the calibration and validation of the hydrodynamic model showed that the two processes were satisfactory. All available scenarios including normal, water shortages and fluctuations were considered for water delivery and distribution in different conditions. In the local assessment, the adequacy varied from 7 to 85%, and the efficiency in all scenarios was 100%. The adequacy, efficiency, and equity indicators in the regional evaluation varied from 6 to 89, 91 to 100, and 13 to 46%, respectively. The overall evaluation of the canal showed that the most desirable situation is related to a harsh fluctuation increasing with the adequacy, equity and efficiency indicators equal to 82, 23 and 91%, respectively. Calculation of the “Desirability of water delivery and distribution” indicator showed poor performance in all operational scenarios except harsh fluctuation scenario with 82% of which, the canal performance was estimated in fair level.

Public health of common waters in protecting the human's health is considered as "human delinquent" and environmental and natural health as "green offender" (silent offender) due to the terrestrial nature and the lack of the monopoly of works; so, the consequences of violating it in the territory of a particular state are of particular importance in the international public law. Therefore, protection of the harm caused by the breach of the public health of common waters is imperative by international institutions and States members of the international community. The supportive policy is a branch of public policy that "puts" various legal protections from the perpetrators of the violations of norms and regulations "in the form of coherent policies using its principal principles. These principles are a set of doctrines and coherent strategies that determine the policy and consequently, the way in which laws and regulations are imposed; as with the qualitative measure, it provides for the monitoring of rules and regulations. To make the present study, a review of the principles that underlie the principles of public health policy in international treaties and procedures is presented. The principles outlined in these sources are categorized into three categories: "justice-oriented", "cooperative-oriented" and "fair-minded". These principles can be used in protecting Iranian water health rights.

This study aimed to investigate the vulnerability of Sistan plain to fluctuations and Water Scarcity in Hirmand River using the vulnerability framework, by applying the resilience approach. The socioeconomic and biophysical components presented in this framework were embedded in a set of subsystems of the System Dynamics (SD) model. According to this, four levels of reference resilience were defined based on the annual flow from the Hirmand River, and the system attributes of concern were identified under the existing structure until 2050. Then, the proposed strategies to the socio-economic structure of the model were applied under two critical conditions of water scarcity and fluctuations of the river flow. The values associated to the system attributes of concern of the two mentioned conditions were compared with the reference resilience levels. The results showed the efficiency of the policy option in reducing water scarcity and the importance of the environmental impacts of the biophysical component. For example, the two modes of water scarcity and water inflow fluctuations had the revenues of 9490 and 5100 billion IRR (annual income according to the base price of 2011), but they had the same population and resident's utility, which was related to receiving 117 and 600 MCM of the environmental demand, respectively. Management, development and continuous support of the industrial sector can provide a "Success to the Successful" archetype for the socio-economic section of Sistan Plain.

The construction of irrigation network and the water transfer from Karkheh Dam to Dashte-Abbas, due to neglecting the groundwater resources has increased groundwater level and waterlogging of the agricultural land in the recent years. The aim of this study was, therefore, to optimize the conjunctive use of surface and groundwater resources in Dashte-Abbas to minimize waterlogging problems and achieve the maximum net income. For this purpose, the behavior of groundwater was simulated using the system dynamics (SD) approach. The conjunctive use of surface and groundwater resources was then optimized using the Vensim multi-criteria optimization method with the objective function of maximizing the net income of the plain. The SD model calibration was done using climatic, hydrological, agricultural, and environmental data from the 2001-2009 time period; then it was validated based on the information from the 2009-2016 period. Evaluation of the developed SD model showed that the model had high accuracy in simulating key variables such as groundwater levels (ME=60cm, R²=97%, RMSE=47cm) and groundwater salinity (RMSE=100μS/cm, R²=74%, and ME=123μS/cm). Furthermore, the results of the optimization model showed that the optimum use of surface and groundwater resources for the agricultural demand was 65% and 35%, respectively. To sum up, it could be concluded that with the optimization of the conjunctive use of surface and groundwater resource, s about 10 MCM of water consumption could be annually saved to irrigate almost 800 ha of the new lands.

In this study, we used the ARIMA time series model, the fuzzy-neural inference network, multi-layer perceptron artificial neural network, and ARIMA-ANN, ARIMA-ANFIS hybrid models for the modeling and prediction of the daily electrical conductivity parameter of daily teleZang hydrometric station over the statistical period of 49 years. For this purpose, the daily data for the 1996-2004 period were used for model training and data for the 1996-2006 period were applied for testing. In order to verify the validity of the fitted ARIMA models, the residual autocorrelation and partial autocorrelation functions and Port Manteau statistics were used. PMI algorithm were   then used to model and predict electrical conductivity for selecting the effective input parameter of the neural fuzzy inference network and the artificial neural network. The daily parameters of magnesium (with two days delay) and sodium (with one day delay), heat (with one day delay), flow rate (with two months delay), and acidity (with one day delay) were obtained with the lowest values of Akaike and highest values of hempel statistics as the input of the neural fuzzy inference network and the artificial neural network for modelling daily electric conductivity predictions; then predictions were made. Also, models evaluation criteria confirmed the superiority of the ARIMA-ANFIS hybrid model with the trapezoidal membership function and with two membership numbers, as compared to other models with a coefficient of determination of 0.86 and the root mean square of 29 dS / m. Also, the Arima model had the weakest performance. So, it could be applied to modeling and forecasting the daily quality parameter of the tele Zang hydrometer station.

In determining the allocation of water resources, the probable conditions of water resources and water demands are considered as the water allocation scenarios in the basin scale. Then, these scenarios are evaluated in the context of integrated water resources management and from the perspective of sustainable development indicators. The best scenario is selected in order to determine the water allocations. In these evaluations, there are spatial distributions and their interactions are simultaneously the key charaterictics in the decision matrix. These features are not often considered in the evaluation process. In the present study, distributed indicators and simple and integrated multi-criteria evaluation models, including ANP and CP methods, were used to evaluate the water allocation scenarios in the Aras Basin. The results showed that modeling of the spatial distribution and interactions of water allocation impacts was not possible through any of the simple multi-criteria evaluation methods. Simplifying and discarding one or two key features in the evaluation process can lead to significant uncertainties on rankings with a Spearman coefficient of -0.1. By implementing the integrated spatial decision-making approach and applying two features simultaneously, the fourth scenario was ranked first. The proposed approach was compared with the individual models, showing more accurate, with the correlation coefficients of 0.5, 0.6 and 0.7.

Optimal use of water resources seem to be necessary due to climate change and the recent drought conditions. One of the most important and effective management strategies is increasing water productivity in agriculture. Irrigation method and the use of different levels of nitrogen fertilizer are the effective factors in increasing the water productivity. Therefore, this study was conducted to investigate the effect of the irrigation method and nitrogen fertilizer on the harvest index and water productivity of two wheat cultivars with 36 treatments as a split-split plot based on a completely randomized design with three replications in the research farm of Natural Resources and Agricultural Research Center of Kashmar, during the 2018-2019 time period. The treatments were two irrigation methods including end blocked border and drip irrigation (tape) as  the main plots, three levels of the nitrogen fertilizer from urea source including 0, 50 and 100 kg/ha as the  sub plots and two cultivars of wheat including Pishgam and Sirvan as the sub-sub plots. The results showed that by changing the border irrigation method to the drip irrigation (tape) method, the harvest index and water productivity were increasesignificantly. The results also showed that grain yield and its components, including harvest index and water productivity, had no significant difference in 50 and 100 kg/ha nitrogen levels. On the other hand, grain yield and its components, harvest index and water productivity, were significantly higher in the Sirvan cultivar rather than the Pishgam one (P<0.01). According to the results obtained from this study, the drip irrigation method, 50 kg/ha nitrogen level and Sirvan cultivar could be recommended for the study region. 

In order to study and evaluate the drought stress indices in surface irrigation by furrow method on grain yield, the yield components and water use efficiency, an experiment was conducted at Behbahan Agricultural Research Station in 2014-16. The experiment was conducted as a split plot in a randomized complete block design with 4 replications. Irrigation at two levels (irrigation after 100 and 200 mm evaporation from Class A pan, respectively) was evaluated as the main factor and corn cultivar was considered at 6 levels as the sub-factor. Comparison of the  mean water use efficiency in irrigation and cultivar interactions showed 100 mm evaporation from Class A pan and cultivars V4 (PH1), V5 (PH3) and V2 (SC Mobin) were ranked the first and foremost, respectively, with the  yields of 1.353, 1.299 and 1.296 kg of corn per kg of water consumed, respectively. The mean water consumed in 2014 of the experiment in 100 and 200 mm evaporation from Class A pan was 521.2 and 462.4 mm, respectively. Pearson correlation coefficient results  also showed that with increasing the  yield components, such as the  number of grains per row and number of rows, the  1000-grain weight was  increased due to  the highly significant correlation coefficient of 1000-grain weight with grain yield (r = 0.8776).  Consequently, grain yield was also increased. The highest values of SSI, STI, MP, TOL, GMP HM and YI indices were calculated in V4 (PH1). The higher values of the above indices in cultivar V4 (PH1) than other cultivars caused this treatment to be introduced as the superior one. The decreasing trend of corn yield, which was caused by water deficit stress, increased SSI, STI, MP, TOL, GMP and YI indices, while it decreased corn yield, leading to incremental changes in the YSI indices.

In the present study, the SWAT hydrological model was developed for the upstream of the Zayandehrood dam to evaluate the inflow to this dam. Accordingly, after entering the meteorological and hydrometric information of the region, the runoff simulation was performed. Due to the high volume of entrances to the Zayandehrood Dam, Shahrokh Castle hydrometric stations were selected as the base station for calibration and validation during the statistical period of 1990-2015. After hydrological simulation and accuracy of results, climate prediction was performed using the fifth model of the climate change for the RCP scenarios. According to the forecast, by using climate change models, the temperature could be assumed to increase in all models and the highest rate of increase would occur under the RCP 8.5 climate scenario. After evaluating climate change in different diffusion scenarios, the runoff of the basin was simulated in the SWAT model. The simulation results of runoff in the catchment area showed that although the amount of rainfall was increased in the region, increasing the temperature had a greater effect, reducing the amount of runoff in the basin. Based on the results of climate change, hydrological simulation was performed using the SWAT model. The results showed that the effect of diffusion scenarios in the region was different, causing an increase in temperature and precipitation. The highest increase was observed in the RCP8.5 scenario, which was consistent with the nature of this emission scenario, with the highest emission of greenhouse gases and carbon dioxide. Then, the evaluation of the hydrological model was done; the results showed that although the amount of rainfall in the region had been increased, the increase in temperature of this basin had a greater effect and efficiency in reducing the amount of runoff.

The Khanmirza plain is one of Iran’s fertile plains that is located in Chaharmahal Bakhtiari province. Agriculture in the area is very prosperous, but the lack of rain and over-harvesting from consumption wells has led to a reduction in groundwater levels, even causing land subsidence. Moreover, the high usage of chemical manures, especially nitrate manures, has increased the number of solutes and chemical materials in the groundwater. Thus, for this plain, making artificial ponds is important to modify the storage of the aquifer. In this study, to define the optimum locations of the artificial ponds, the effect of 12 factors was considered. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method was used to introduce the weight of each parameter in comparison to other factors. Afterward, the spatial priority of all factors was derived using the Geographic Information System (GIS) technique. The produced GIS layers were laid on each other and the optimum locations were obtained. Agricultural drainage was an effective index for recharge purposes. The results of the study demonstrated that groundwater level decline got the maximum weight (40%), while the land slope had the minimum weight, since the vicinity to available floodways was considered as an independent criterion. The results also showed that regions with a total area of 18 km² in north and north-west of the Khanmirza plain could be the optimum and most suitable places for artificial ponds construction.

Optimizing the water resources operation, especially in the agricultural sector, which has the largest share in the water resources operation, is extremely important. Therefore, in this research, while introducing Whale, Gray Wolf and Crow Search Optimization Algorithms, their performance in the optimum operation of Golestan single-reservoir system Dam was evaluated with the aim of providing water demand for the downstream lands based on reliability, Reversibility, and vulnerability indices. In this optimization problem, the objective function was defined as the minimization of the total deficiency during the operation period. Meanwhile, the constraints of continuity equation, overflow, storage and reservoir release volume were applied to the objective function of the problem. Then, the results were compared with the absolute optimal value based on the nonlinear programming method obtained from GAMS software; finally, a multi-criteria decision-making model was developed to rank the optimization algorithms in terms of performance. The absolute optimal response obtained by the GAMS software based on the nonlinear programming method was 19.41. The results showed that the Gray Wolf algorithm performed better than the other algorithms in optimizing the objective function, so that the average responses in Gray Wolf, Crow Search and Whale algorithms were 92, 84 and 67% of the absolute optimal response, respectively. Furthermore, the Gray Wolf optimization algorithm performs better than the Whale and Crow Search algorithms in all parameters. In addition, the coefficient of variation of the responses obtained by the Gray Wolf algorithm is 2 and 1.43 times smaller than that in the Whale and Crow Search Algorithms, respectively. Finally, the results of the multi-criteria decision-making model showed that the gray wolf algorithm had the first rank, as compared to the other two algorithms studied in solving the problem of the optimal operation of the Golestan dam reservoir. 

Compost leachate is a liquid resulting from physical, chemical and biological decomposition of organic materials. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of leachate compost on the physical, hydraulic and soil moisture characteristic curves. Also, the effect of leachate on the aerial organ fresh weight of corn was investigated. Leachate was added to clay loam and sandy clay loam soils at the rate of zero, 1.25 and 2.5 weight percent. The soil water characteristic curve and the estimation of the parameters of the van Gnuchten and Brooks and Corey models were performed using RETC software. Leachate increased the bulk density and decreased the available water of the clay loam soil. Only 1.25% of the leachate increased the available water in the sandy clay loam soil. Two levels of leachate decreased the bulk density of sandy clay loam soil. Leachate decreased the saturation hydraulic conductivity of the clay loam and increased this parameter of sandy clay loam soil. Leachate was more successful in increasing the aerial organ fresh weight of corn in the sandy clay loam soil. Therefore, leachate was more useful in sandy clay loam than in clay loam soil, and 1.25% treatment was better in the sandy clay loam soil. Also, the used leachate increased the repellency of both soils. Leachate caused the parameters of van Gnuchten and Brooks and Corey models to increase, as compared to the control in both soils.  

The goal of this study was to investigate the effects of treated urban wastewater and different harvesting times on the yield and yield components of Sorghum (cv. Speed feed) in the greenhouse condition. The research was done based on a completely randomized design including 3 replications as pot planting in Ferdowsi university of Mashhad in 2016. In this study, the effects of four mixtures consisting of the moderations use of the treated urban wastewater and freshwater (0, 25, 75 and 100 percent mixture of treated urban wastewater and freshwater) and three harvesting times level (pre-flowering, after 50 percent of the plant to flowering, and grain filling stage) on the yield and yield components of Sorghum were evaluated. The results inducted that the effect of different moderations of irrigation regimes on all of them parameter was highly significant (P<0.01), but plant height was non-significant; it was also revealed that the effect of harvesting times on all of the parameters was highly significant (P<0.01), but leaf width was non-significant. The results also exhibited that the interaction effects of irrigated regimes and harvesting times on the leaf number, panicle length and width, leaf, panicle, and stem was highly significant (P<0.01), but plant height, stem diameter, branches number, and leaf length and width were significant at the  5 percent level (P<0.05). Also, the use of 25, 75, and 100 percent mixture of wastewater resulted in the  forage yield of  37.5, -29.3, and 12.9 percent (pre-flowering); -31, -15.3, and -47.4 percent (after 50 percent of the plant to flowering),  and -11.8, -35.7 and -28.4 percent (grain filling stage), respectively. The highest forage weights (46.2 g per plant) showed, in the study, irrigated by a mixture of 75 treated wastewater and 25 freshwater, and harvesting the plant after 50 percent in flowering stage; on the other hand, the best treatment in this study irrigation by the mixture of 75 treated wastewater and 25 freshwater and harvesting the plant after 50 percent in the flowering stage, Thus, using the treatment in farm experiment required the field research.

Soil erosion is one of the most serious environmental issues in the world, causing soil degradation, reduction of land productivity, increasing flood, water pollution and pollutions transportation; it is also a serious threat to sustainable development in the world. Therefore, the soil conservation and the prevention of soil erosion and use of conditioners as the nanoclay can be considered as a solution to improve   land productivity and protect environment. The present study was, therefore, conducted to address the effect of the application of montmorillonite nanoclay with three rates of 0.03, 0.06 and 0.09 t ha^-1 on changing runoff and soil loss variables under laboratory conditions. The results showed that the nanoclay with the rate of 0.03 t ha^-1 could decrease the runoff coefficient, soil loss and sediment concentration with the rate of 40.65, 88.38 and 82.19 percent, respectively. The average of soil loss in control treatment and conservation treatments of nanoclay with various rates was measured to be 3.76, 0.44, 1.33 and 3.16 g, respectively. Also, the results showed that the most sediment concentration was the control treatment with the rate of 5.84 g l^-1 and the conservation treatments with nanoclay in the applied rates was 1.04, 3.47 and 2.96 g l^-1, respectively. Also, the results showed that the nanoclay effect was significant on changing the soil loss and sediment concentration at the level of 99 percent. Finally, due to the effect, the use of this conditioner in natural conditions and investigation of the effects on environment and aggregates stability are recommended.

Water is the most crucial factor for agricultural development. Therefore, the economic evaluation of water resources is critical. The purpose of this paper was to determine the economic value of water resources, to evaluate the financial efficiency and to decide on the price of agricultural water in Arak plain. For this purpose, the economic value of water resources for wheat, barley, alfalfa and corn was identified in 2015- 2016, using the mathematical model developed in this research. The results showed that the financial efficiency was calculated for three alternatives: free-cost water, water cost equal to the 10% of the calculated price and water cost equal to the exact calculated price.  The irrigation efficiency of 40% financial efficiency was 2.38%, 1.68% and 0.47% , respectively, for the  aformentioned methods, and  the irrigation efficiency of 70% financial efficiency was 2.07, 1.92 and 0.71, respectively. Also, the sensitivity analysis of the financial efficiency was performed, with 10% change in the farmers income and costs. The results also revealed that irrigation efficiency and financial efficiency were not aligned when farmers had free water; however, they were aligned when the farmer paid 10% of the calculated price. Financial efficiency was more sensitive to changes in the farmers income when compared to the changes in costs.

In areas with high rainfall distribution, proper irrigation management, including complementary irrigation, is one of the effective strategies to increase crop production. In order to investigate the effect of supplementary irrigation in different growth stages on the yield and water productivity of Autumn rapeseed, an experiment in the form of a complete randomized block design with five irrigation management treatments including rainfed (I1), single irrigation at flowering stage (I2), single Irrigation at pod filling stage (I3), two irrigation at pod filling stage and flowering (I4), three irrigation at flowering,  and pod filling and grain Filling stages (I5) was carried out at Lorestan University Research Field. Results showed that there was a significant difference between the effects of different irrigation treatments at 1% level. The lowest grain yield, biological yield and oil yield were obtained in I1 treatment with 44.62%, 50.95% and 53.58% decrease, as compared to I5 treatment. The results also showed that by applying irrigation at pod filling stage, grain yield and oil yield were increased by 13.22% and 20.23%, as compared to I1 treatment. The highest total productivity for the grain yield and oil yield was obtained in I5 treatment with 0.252 and 0.073 kg / m3. In general, due to the fact that drought stress in rapeseed calving stages reduces yield, the higher the number of irrigations in rapeseed calving stages, the more the yield.

Improper water managements and overuse of surface water and groundwater mainly for agricultural purposes in Iran have led to the drying of many rivers and groundwater. Climate change adds an extra pressure on the water resources. These changes indicate the necessity of adjustment in water management plans. This study used hydroclimatic variables including precipitation and temperature in Urmia Plain to find appropriate crops that needed the minimum irrigation water. In addition, the best time for planting each crop is determined. To find the proper crops for the region, the daily water, as required for each crop, was calculated based on climate condition, crop type, and crop growth stage. The results indicates that grape could be the best crop for the region. In addition, early planting (e.g. in spring) reduced the irrigation water needed due to more rain and soil moisture in spring than summer, which could provide crop water requirement. On the other hand, the increased temperature in spring could satisfy heat units required for the fully grown plants like barley.