JWSS - Journal of Water and Soil Science

In the present research, the performances of six empirical models, i.e., simple threshold exceedance, fixed proportion exceedance, quadratic function of storage, power function of storage, cubic function of storage, and exponential function of storage were investigated for estimation of groundwater potential recharge in a semi-arid region. First, the FAO Dual Crop procedure was used to calibrate evaporation from bare soil during the occurrence of potential recharge period. Then, the empirical models were calibrated utilizing soil moisture and potential recharge data. For validation of empirical models, soil moisture and potential recharge were simultaneously estimated for an independent event. Results indicated that 5 of the six models (except for the simple threshold exceedance model) were able to estimate potential recharge with a reasonable accuracy, showing the maximum computed value of NRMSE (Normalized Root Mean Square Errors) of 24.4 percent. According to validation results, exponential, cubic, and power function models provided better estimation of potential recharge in comparison with the linear models. Also, all of the applied empirical models were able to simulate soil moisture during the recharge period with an acceptable accuracy. Finally, the exponential model with minimum NRMSE value for soil water simulation and also acceptable performance of potential recharge estimation was recommended for estimation of potential recharge in the study area.

Due to the time and space changes of hydrological events in the arid and semi-arid regions, recharge measurement in these areas is very difficult. Hence, groundwater recharge is a complicated phenomenon for which there is not a fixed method to determine. The aim of this research was to develop a method for estimation of groundwater recharge based on a hybrid method. In this study, a hybrid method for calculating recharge was presented by combining empirical methods with a mathematical model, MODFLOW, and AHP analysis. The results showed that the most important parameters affecting groundwater recharge are soil properties, unsaturated thickness, land cover, land slope, irrigation and precipitation, from which the soil properties and precipitation are most important. The results showed that the overall impact of small changes in precipitation and temperature significantly affect the groundwater recharge, and heavy soils are much more sensitive to these changes than light soils. By changing 10% precipitation, the recharge rate is changed between 16% and 77% and by changing 1ºC temperature, the recharge rate is changed between 6% and 42%. Also, results showed that precipitation and evapotranspiration changes in four months including December, January, February and March had significant effects on annual recharge rate. Using the results of this research, the vulnerable areas of the plain, appropriate places and time for artificial recharge could be identified. Overall, the results of this study can be useful in various aspects of groundwater management.

In this research, to locate and prioritize suitable areas for flood spreading in Mashhad plain, 10 criteria were used including land use, slope, alluvium thickness, distance to well, distance to subterranean, distance from the village, water table drawdown, permeability coefficient, electrical conductivity, and drainage density. Weighting process was done by Analytic Network Process (ANP) and fuzzy logic. After preparing and weighting the maps of all appropriate measures for locating suitable areas of flood spreading maps based on fuzzy logic and analytic network process model, the final map was prepared for prioritizing suitable areas for flood spreading. Then by applying the limiting layer that is a combination of three criteria of land use, slope and geomorphology, the final map of suitable areas for flood spreading was prepared and prioritized. The results showed that among the 10 factors influencing flood spreading, the thickness of alluvium criteria by weight of 0.27 was identified as the most effective layer in suitable areas for flood spreading. Most of the suitable regions located in slope less than 3% that represents its considerable impact in implementation of flood spreading. Mashhad plain potential for flood spreading, after removing exception areas (40.8% of total area), were defined in four inappropriate, relatively appropriate, appropriate and perfectly appropriate classes, that include 2.7, 25.9, 26.5 and 1.5% of the plain area, respectively.

Recent urban development and population growth in Shahrood tend to adopt a strategy for ground water management. This project, which is a descriptive- analytic type study based on field observation and laboratory analysis, aims to delineate proper sites for groundwater artificial recharge using integrated AHP-TOPSIS.  First, the study area was delineated using remote sensing techniques. Then, appropriate criteria including 5 main criteria and 12 sub-criteria were obtained by field observation and literature review. Then, the appropriate sites for groundwater recharge were determined. The process of the used method consists of designing hierarchical structure of the project, preparation of pairwise comparison matrices, weighting criteria and sub criteria values by experts, and ultimately ranking them by TOPSIS method. Results showed that lithology, slope, water table depth, and land use have the main role in sites delineation. A number of control sites were employed for model validation that indicates 87.20 percent accuracy. Overally, 73.6 and 82.12 percent of the total area were grouped as very suitable and suitable classes, respectively.