JWSS - Journal of Water and Soil Science

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The application of “Modified Einstein Procedure” is recommended by the Specialized Committee on Sediment, Iranian Ministry of Energy. However, this method has not been applied to any river in the country. It is the purpose of this study to investigate the total sediment load of the Karun and Karkheh rivers at Ahwas and Hamidieh stations.

The graphical calculations of the method are very complicated and time consuming. Therefore, a mathematical model has been developed in this study to improve the accuracy, simplicity and speed of computations. The required data were obtained from the above stations for seven years (1988-95), and applying these data, the total sediment load was calculated using the model. The bed load for the above stations was also computed and the ratio of bed load to total sediment load was calculated. In addition, measured data from East Fork river (in USA) were applied to examine the accuracy of the method in estimating the bed load. Comparison of the measured and computed results shows that the “Modified Einstein Procedure” estimates the amount of bed load with a high accuracy. The relationship between the bed load and suspended load and also between the total load and the stream discharge have also been established.

Finally, it is concluded that the “Modified Einstein Procedure” with minor modifications can be successfully applied for the above-mentioned rivers of Karun and Karkheh.

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Over the past decades, numerous regime formulations, describing channel width, average flow depth and channel slope, have been proposed for gravel-bed rivers. Using the downstream hydraulic geometry measurements from 280 field channels, nine gravel-bed predictive formulations were compared. They are attributed to Bray, Chang, Hey and Thorne, Kellerhals, Neil, Parker and Simons, and Albertson. The comparison showed that the dominant discharge and the median grain size are not sufficient hydraulic variables to predict the channel geometry (width, depth, and especially channel slope). Seeking more complex formulations with the measured parameters, it was not possible to improve the existing formulations significantly without spurious influences of common variables.

 A second database is thus gathered from 19 laboratory-based boundary-layer measurements published in Kironoto and Graf (13) and Song et al. (19). In fact, the boundary-layer theory will respond to a fundamental question: are the existing available variables in literature not sufficient or the methods of their estimations are not appropriate? Based on the present study, the methods of their estimations should be changed. The second database allows proving the usefulness of the Shields parameter for the prediction of average flow depth and channel slope. Hence, using boundary-layer theory for prediction of Shields parameter and stable channel parameters is recommended.

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Many sediment transport equations have been developed for estimation of the river sediment materials during the past four decades. There are significant differences in the results from these equations when applied to compute sediment transport for a specific river. Therefore, application of an equation for estimation of a river sediment load is not an easy task. In this study, 12 important sediment transport equations including Meyer-Peter and Muller, Einstein, Bagnold, Engelund and Hansen. Toffaleti, Ackers and White, Yang, Van Rijn, Wiuff, Samaga et al, Beg and Fazel were tested against the measured field data of four major Khuzestan rivers, namely, the Karoon, the Dez, the Karkheh, and the Maroon. For accurate results and rapid computation, a computer program was developed for this purpose. Over 490 measured data from the gauging stations of these rivers are selected. Using these data, the hydraulic parameters and the bed material of the gauging stations are determined.

The results of the computer program are analyzed and compared with the measured data. The results from this study show that those equations which are based on the energy exchange of the flow, are generally in good agreement with the measured data for Khuzestan Rivers. From these equations, the Engelund and Hansen’s equation generally predicts satisfactory results for the all gauging stations except for the Maroon River gauging station. And finally if the sediment load computed by the Beg’s method is multiplied by a factor of 0.1, the results approximately match those obtained from the Engelund and Hansen’s method.

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Fecundity of Shah-Koolee in the Sefidrood river, which is one of the economic and popular fishes in northern part of Iran, was studied. From April to August 2000, 539 Shah-Koolee fishes were caught at the specific station in the Sefidrood river from the sea shore to Kisum. Seventy one samples of unspawned fishes were taken, the primary biometry was performed, specimens of the different parts of the ovary were prepared and absolute fecundity was determined through gravimetry. Maximum and minimum fecundity rates were 18860 and 2929 eggs, respectively, that related to eight- and three- years old fishes. Relative fecundity was 132±37 and 72 eggs per gram of weight. The relationship between absolute fecundity and length and weight was linear, correlation and numerical quantities of a, b and r were calculated and regression graph was drawn. Gonado Somatic Index (G.S.I.) was used to determine the natural spawning region and calssification was done on the basis of two factors, age and station. It was found that three- years old fishes with a regeneration power of 17.05 in comparison with other age groups had higher potential. This index also showed that Astaneh and Kisum stations were favorable places for natural spawning of these fishes.

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In this study, two data ranges of uniform flow (bulk parameters) and non-uniform flow (local parameters) are employed to investigate resistance to flow and the factors affecting it using velocity distribution of boundary layer theory. The results indicate that the cross-section form factor or adjustment roughness coefficient of logarithmic law can not improve the prediction of flow resistance. On the other hand, it is possible to ameliorate the prediction of resistance to flow by application of the Froude number and the Shields parameter along with the integration constant of the logarithmic velocity distribution. Also, there is no improvement in flow resistance prediction by taking into account power equations. On the other hand, the application of boundary-layer characteristics such as displacement thickness and momentum thickness in velocity profile can remove the risk of spurious correlation. Based on the measured velocity profiles for non-uniform flow in Gamasiab river, a new flow resistance equation is suggested in which the following bulk parameters are considered: flow depth, maximal velocity at the water surface, and friction slope.

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An approach for regional low flow frequency analysis is to use multiple regression techniques for obtaining relationships between low flows with specific return periods and catchments characteristics. In this paper, this method has been used. After single-site frequency analysis for 20 stream gauging stations, homogeneity test was performed. Regional relationships between low flows with return periods 2 , 5 , 10, and 20 years and catchments characteristics were derived. For this purpose, catchment area, mean elevation, minimum elevation, shape factor, main channel length, length of main chanel from catchment centroid to outlet, forest area, mean annual rainfall, and mean catchment slope as model inputs were examined and cachment area, mean elevation, and mean catchment slope entered to the models. Finally, the mean relative error of models for different return period, 2, 5, 10, and 20 years, was computed 41.1, 41.3, 45.0, 47.2 percent, respectively that in comparison with other studies, it displays smaller errors.

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Present study investigates macrobenthic invertebrates and their community structure in Chafrood river to classify and assess the study sites regarding the environmental anthropogenic factors. Along a 9 km distance, 8 study sites were selected, and macrobenthic were monthly sampled using a surber sampler (1600cm², 250 μ mesh net) with 3 replicate at each station. Collected samples organisms were fixed with 4% formalin and laboratory process including sorting, identification and enumeration of the animals were preceded. During the study 73 benthic taxa were identified which were dominated with aquatic insects larvae especially orders Diptera and Ephemeroptera. The maximum and minimum total abundance was 2335 ind.m^-2 in station #2 and 1639 ind.m^-2 in station #4 respectively. Benthic animals' frequency data were summarized to community structure metrics including total richness, EPT richness and ratio of EPT frequency to Chironomidae family. A Shannon- Winner diversity index and Hilsenhoff family level biotic index was also determined for each studied station. Result of cluster analysis for stations, based on the community structure metrics and diversity index, was in accordance with the station classification using biotic index and both classify the affected stations at the same group.

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The potential of artificial neural network models for simulating the hydrologic behaviour of catchments is presented in this paper. The main purpose is the modeling of river flow in a multi-gauging station catchment and real time prediction of peak flow downstream. The study area covers the Upper Derwent River catchment located in River Trent basin. The river flow has been predicted (at Whatstandwell gauging station) using upstream measured data. Three types of ANN were used for this application: Multi-layer perceptron, Recurrent and Time lag recurrent neural networks. Data with different lengths (1 month, 6 months and 3 years) have been used, and flow with 3, 6, 9 and 12 hours lead-time has been predicted. In general, although ANN shows a good capability to model river flow and predict downstream discharge by using only upstream flow data, however, the type of ANN as well as the characteristics of the training data was found as very important factors affecting the efficiency of the results.

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Northern watershed of Kouhrang River with the area of 68437 hectares is located in northwestern Chahar Mahal and Bakhtiary province within 49ْ 54ً to 50ْ 9ً E longitude and 32ْ 83ً to 32ْ 36ً N latitude.Making a balance and equilibrium between the number of ranchers, the rangeland production potential and appropriate flock size in each utilization unit is a necessary task. It is a matter of importance to determine suitable ranch size based on pastoral household but suitable household livelihood as well. The main goal of this study is to determine utilization unit size based on ecologic and socioeconomic factors for each household. Along with detecting the ranch allotments, the range capacity and its productivity potential were studied. Then, based on expenses and the revenues resulting from herdship,(on ranges), the suitable flock size for fulfillment of the household expenses regarding the range utilization periods, the suitable range size per household was determined. 10 vegetation types with 0.91 AUM per hectares grazing capacity were detected in studied area. There are 46 range allotments and some parts of other 6 range allotments in studied area with average area at 1510 hectares. Average pastoral household is 36.8 per unit range allotments. Pastoral households share at rangelands is 41 hectares now. The minimum and suitable ranch area for each pastoral household which can provide annual needs and costs is 520 hectares and 142 animal unit at a mix flock at 3 to 2 ratio of sheep to goat for a 100 – dayes grazing season. The result of this study showed that production potential at each range unit is influenced by flock size, household share on farming lands, and the household numbers on each ranch unit. Ranch unit and the livelihood level, have significant influence at 5% level on suitable ranch size per household.

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Occupational safety and health of agricultural workers have not yet received their due attention in developing countries. This is particularly true in the case of tractor drivers who operate tractors in unfavorable conditions and in a high level of seat and tractor vibrations. Therefore, an investigation of vibration sources and finding the methods for decreasing them are of considerable importance. In this research, vibrations that the tractor operators of different weights are exposed to while operating any of the three commonly used tractors in Iran during plowing with moldboard plows, disk harrows or routine road travel at two forward speeds were examined. Acceleration data of tractor body and its driver, while riding the tractor, were measured and recorded. Later, Fast Fourier Analysis, and root mean square of weighted accelerations for the cases of driver health and comfort were analyzed and evaluated. Results revealed that the level of forward speed did not have any significant effect on vibrations introduced to drivers body, however, the average of acceleration vectors on different tractors and their drivers’ bodies revealed a significant influence (P<0.01). Moreover, with increasing a driver’s mass, the average of acceleration vectors on his body decreased. For example, a driver of 55 kg mass, bore a maximum acceleration vector of 9.8 m/sec2, while a driver with 100 kg mass, had a minimum acceleration vector of 3.3 m/sec2. In a comparison of permissible riding hours/day, JD3140 and U651 tractors recorded maximum and minimum, respectively. Also acceleration vectors for different tractor operators compared with international standards showed that the comfort level for these tractors was extremely low.

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Tamarix sricta plant grows in riversides of Karun river. Outer body plant in the flood times causes decrease in water velocity, preventing erosion. One of the factors by which the hydraulic resistance is expressed is the roughness coefficient. Measurement of roughness coefficient of the existing plants in these riversides and floodplains, and surveying their effects on the velocity decrease and shear stress of the flow are important. The present research studies roughness coefficient of the plants manning existing in the riverside. Tamaix sricta was studied in non-submerged and sub-critical conditions in a flume with the length of 12.6 m, width of 0.5 m and height of 0.6 m in different velocity, discharge and depth ranges. The height of plants in this study was 35 cm with a natural arrangement in a bench of 2.8 m in length put in the bed of the flume. The total number of the experiments is 22. The results of this study show that roughness coefficients of plants are functions of velocity, depth, hydraulic radius and type of plants. Roughness coefficients in non-submerge condition change nonlinearly with changes in velocity, depth, Reynolds number, submerge depth and (VR) in natural conditions.

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The determination of air temperature is important in the energy balance calculation, hydrology and meteorological studies. In this regard, the limited number of meteorological stations is one of the serious problems for air temperature determination on a large spatial scale. The remote sensing technique by covering large areas and using updated satellite images might be appropriate for estimation of this parameter. In this research, the negative correlation between land surface temperature and vegetation index (NDVI) has been used for air temperature estimation through TVX method in which the inference of air temperature is based on the hypothesis that the temperature of the dense vegetation canopy is close to air temperature. For investigation the performance of TVX method, images of MODIS sensor have been applied for the Sefidrod River basin in the years 1381- 1382-1384. The spilt window technique which was developed by Price has been used for land surface temperature calculation. The mean difference between observed and estimated land surface temperature using Price algorithm was about 6.2Co. This error can affect the air temperature values. Because of using NDVI index in TVX method, this method has the sensitivity to the vegetation density, though in the parts with sparse vegetation, the value of error increases. 4 percent variation of air temperature against the 0.05 increasing of maximum NDVI indicates the high performance of TVX method for air temperature estimation in large areas.

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Rivers as a main sources of supplying water for urban areas, agriculture and industry, are very important. This point reveals the necessity of the control, improvement and solving the problems of rivers, especially all problems relating to water quality. In this study, transport of the suspended sediment is numerically modeled. The Saint-Venant hydrodynamic equations and also advection-dispersion equation (ADE) are applied for modelling flow and suspended sediment transport. It is necessary to choose appropriate empirical and/or semi-empirical equation to accurately estimate the equilibrium suspended sediment discharge, as well as the appropriate equation describing longitudinal dispersion coefficient. In this research, 5 and 6 equations were applied in the ADE for estimating equilibrium suspended sediment discharge and longitudinal dispersion coefficient, respectively. 30 combinations of these equations were made and the final model was run for each of them separately. Comparison of the predicted suspended sediment concentrations and the corresponding measured values at the survey site, Abdelkhan Station, for the calibration and verification periods showed that the combination of the Van Rijn's equilibrium suspended sediment equation and the Fischer's longitudinal dispersion equation performed very well. The maximum percentages of errors in estimation of suspended sediment concentrations were 19.56% and 26.3% for the calibration and verification periods, respectively.

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Riparian vegetation is a component of river system that performs certain basic functions including primary vegetative production, protecting stream banks from erosion, trapping sediments, promoting water quality, wildlife habitat and fisheris, forage for livestock, etc. In this research, spatio-temporal change of vegetation riparian area of Aghbolagh-river as an upstream of Karoon-river for 65-km was investigated using 1956, 1969, 1998 aerial photos and 2006 satellite images. Results showed a significant change in riparian area between different periods (kappa=26.55%). This change is the result of construction of dam in the upstream in 1993, alteration of riparian area to arabal land, exploitation of groundwater for agricultural usage, etc

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Landslide as a global disaster causes great human and financial damages. Identification of landslide causes and zonation assist in instability control and construction projects siting. This study aimed to identify landslide causes and instability zonation in Ardal county, Chaharmahal va Bakhtiari province, Iran, using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP). Current landslides were delineated through field survey and interpretation of Earth Google images and geologic maps. By using Digital Elevation Model (DEM), slope, aspect, geologic, soil, distance to faults, distance to roads, distance to rivers and landuse/landcover maps and expert knowledge, the pairwise comparison matrix was designed. The weights for all the involved thematic maps were calculated and susceptible zones were mapped. The hazard map indicated more than 77% of current landslides are located in the severe and very severe hazard classes. Comparing landslide hazard map and trigger maps revealed the most influential factors in landslides are distance to roads and slope maps while distance to faults and aspect show the lowest impacts on landslides.

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  Prediction of sediment load transported by rivers is a crucial step in the management of rivers, reservoirs and hydraulic projects. In the present study, in order to predict the suspended sediment of Taleghan river by using artificial neural

network, and recognize the best ANN with the highest accuracy, 500 daily data series of flow discharge on the present day, flow discharge on the past day, flow depth and hydrograph condition (respectively with the average of 13.83 (m³/s), 15.42 (m³/s), 89.83 (cm) and -0.036) as input variables, and 500 daily data series of suspended sediment, as the output of the model were used. The data was related to the period of 1984-2005. 80 different neural networks were developed using different combinations of variables and also changing the number of hidden-layer neurons and threshold functions. The accuracy of the models was then compared by R² and RMSE. Results showed that the neural network with 3-9-1 structure and input parameters of flow discharge on the present day, flow discharge on the past day and flow depth was superior (R²= 0.97 and RMSE= 0.068) compared to the other structures. The average of the observed data of sediment and that predicted by the optimal model (related to test step) were 1122.802 and 1184.924 (tons per day), respectively.

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Erosion and sedimentation as a river natural behavior lead to the loss of soil and cause irreparable damages to water development projects. Since the phenomenon of erosion and deposition is one of the most complex natural processes, the complete understanding of the effective factors involved in this phenomenon is really a big problem. This study was done to optimize the parameters affecting sediment yield and determine their sensitivity in the Doiraj river basin in the West of Iran, using SWAT, a semi-distributed model, and SUFI2 algorithm, and the monthly sediment yield from 1994 to 2004. In the first run of the model, coefficients R2, NS, and Br2 were respectively obtained as 0.43, 0.39 and 0.28. The results showed that performance of the model with the default data was not satisfactory and we needed to determine the used optimal values. Then, the optimal values of parameters were determined using SUFI2 algorithm and reverse modeling and the model was run with the new values. Based on the new results, coefficients R2, NS, and Br2 were respectively obtained as 0.75, 0.73 and 0.65 and performance of the model improved and its accuracy increased acceptably. In the next step, from among the studied 30 parameters, (CH_N2), (USLE_K), (USLE_P) and (OV_N) were identified as the important parameters effective in the output of the sediment yield from basin. Also, USLE_K as was diagnosed as the most sensitive parameter. Results of this survey can be used in the management of the effective parameters in sediment load. Determining exact values of the effective parameters in other studies can be helpful to improve the simulation results in similar basins, too.

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One of the major challenges in water resources management is the operation of trans boundary watershed. This has been experienced in case of Helmand River between Iran and Afghanistan since the last century. For such a situation, application of a conceptual rainfall-runoff models that can simulate management scenarios is a relevant tool. The SWAT model can be a relevant option in this regard. However, the required hydro-climatic data for them is a serious obstacle. Especially, this problem gets exacerbated in the case of Afghanistan with poor infrastructures. So, application of this type of model would be more problematic. This paper aims to investigate capabilities of SWAT for the simulation of rainfall-runoff processes in such a data-scarce region and the upper catchment of Helmand River is used as the case study. For this purpose, discharge data of Dehraut station from 1969 to 1979 along with some metrological data were prepared and used to calibrate and validate the simulations. The results were acceptable and the coefficients of determinations (R2) during calibration and validation periods were 0.76 and 0.70, respectively. Notably, with respect to snowy condition of the basin, the elevation band option of the snow module of model had a significant effect on the results, especially in the base flows. Moreover, two Landsat satellite images during February 1973 and 1977 when the basin was partly covered with snow was prepared and compared with the SWAT outputs. Similarly, the results showed good performance of the model such that R2 were 0.87 and 0.82, respectively.

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Non-linear Muskingum model is an efficient method for flood routing. However, the efficiency of this method is influenced by three applied parameters. Therefore, efficiency assessment of Imperialist Competition Algorithm (ICA) to evaluate optimum parameters of non-linear Muskingum model was addressed in this study. In addition to ICA, Genetic Algorithm (GA) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) were also used to find an available criterion to verify ICA. In this regard, ICA was applied for Wilson flood routing then, routing of two flood events of DoAab Samsami River was investigated. In case of Wilson flood, the target function was considered as the sum of squared deviation (SSQ) of observed and calculated dischargem. Routing two other floods, in addition to SSQ, another target function was also considered as the sum of absolute deviations of observed and calculated discharge. For the first floodwater based on SSQ, GA indicated the best performance however, ICA was in the first place, based on SAD. For the second floodwater, based on both target functions, ICA indicated a better operation. According to the obtained results, it can be said that ICA could be recommended as an appropriate method to evaluate the parameters of Muskingum non-linear model.

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Riprap is used to control scouring around the bridge abutment. In order to study the stability of riprap around two bridge abutments with two different shapes, experiments were conducted in a laboratory flume made of Plexiglass in 180 degree bend.  In this research, several experiments were done by placing the two bridge abutments made of Plexiglas in a series of riprap. Experiments included two different types of riprap with different densities, four different diameters and constant rate of discharge under pure water condition. In each experiment, flow depth was measured in terms of moving threshold, then stability was calculated by using the data obtained. The results showed that in the same conditions chamfered wing-wall is greater than vertical-wall. So, chamfered wing-wall is, on average, 9 percent more stable than the vertical wall.