Assessment of the Impacts of Drought on Surface Water Resource Quality: A Case Study in Aleshtar, Lorestan Province, Iran

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Associate Professor, Soil Conservation and Watershed Management Research Institute, AREEO, Tehran, Iran.

2 Assistant Professor, Soil Conservation and Watershed Management Research Institute, AREEO, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

Evaluation of water quality along with water supply can be considered as a very important step in consumption optimization of water in all sectors including agricultural purposes, industries and even drinking water supply. Generally, recognition of water resources quality and quantity and its temporal and spatial changes are considered as a key element in management of water supplies. Natural and human-made manipulations in every region can change water resources quality physically, chemically and even bacteriologically. Due to the importance of water quality, a vast range of researches and analysis are being in process or have been done before. Iran have been suffered from long and intense droughts in recent decades. Drought is a creeping phenomenon with a huge annual damage. Iran has suffered a variety of droughts in recent years and annually significant losses have been inflicted on different parts of the country These have affected the country’s resources socially and politically such as immigrations. The studied area is a part of Kashkan basin, which covers an area of ​​9560 square kilometers. In this research, by measuring the chemical parameters out samples taken from surface water and determining the occurrence periods of meteorological drought, the relationship between these events and the quality of surface water in Lorestan province was investigated in a 30-year period in hydrometric stations. The main objective of this research was analyzing the chemical parameters and their changes and trends considering droughts and dry spells in Kashkan basin. For this purpose, the chemical quality of the rivers with quality data of the basin was studied and analyzed. The results of this research showed that the contribution of each formation in the way of stream bed and also the role of droughts on surface water quality and how the quality of surface waters in each sub-basin has changed. Data analysis shows that chemical parameters in surface water have been degraded through the years although the geologic formations in the way of the stream are consonant but the water quality dropped a lot in quality which can be attributed to the droughts occurred during the study periods (e.g. EC rate has been increased from 382.52 μm/cm to 570 μm/cm). Finally, it was shown that surface water is still suitable (C2S1) for irrigation in agriculture despite qualitative decline.

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References

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Water Harvesting Research
Volume 6, Issue 2
2023
Pages 248-262

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