OPTIMIZING THE MANAGEMENT OF SOIL AND WATER QUALITY IN ONE OF THE ROODZARD REPRESENTATIVE SUB-BASINS

• Main Authors: DAVOOD NIKKAMI, Ghafuri, Abdolmajid, Mahdiyan, Mohammad Hoseyn, Bayat, Reza, Jam Heydar, Hadi, Arsham, Aziz
• Format: Publication
• Language: Persian
• Published: Tehran (Iran) Soil Conservation and Watershed Management Research Institute _ SCWMRI 2012
• Subjects: BASSIN VERSANT; CALIDAD; CALIDAD DEL AGUA; COURS D'EAU; CUENCAS HIDROGRAFICAS; CURSOS DE AGUA; GESTION DES EAUX; GESTION DU SOL; http://www.fao.org/aos/agrovoc#c_16061; http://www.fao.org/aos/agrovoc#c_6400; http://www.fao.org/aos/agrovoc#c_6617; http://www.fao.org/aos/agrovoc#c_7176; http://www.fao.org/aos/agrovoc#c_8320; http://www.fao.org/aos/agrovoc#c_8334; MANEJO DEL SUELO; ORDENACION DE AGUAS; QUALITE; QUALITE DE L'EAU; QUALITY; RIVERS; ROODZARD, Khouzestan (Province); SOIL MANAGEMENT; SUB-BASINS; WATER MANAGEMENT; WATER QUALITY; WATERSHEDS

Soil as one of the most valuable natural resources, subject to erosion problems due to land mismanagement and natural factors and affected by many problems in the last few decades. Reduce environmental and economic impacts resulting from mismanagement of land use need to have measures in watersheds. The main objective of this research is determining the optimized level level of land use to minimize soil erosion, nutrients losses and maximize the income of people living in Abolabbas watershed in the north-east in Khouzestan province. For this purpose, linear programming model was used in three different scenarios including current land use condition without land management, current land use condition with land management and standardized land use condition. Results demonstrated that current land uses are not optimized for least soil erosion and nutrient losses and high income. At optimized conditions, the area of forests increased from 12969.74 to 13209.39 ha (1.81%), orchards increased from 689.84 to 1556.45 ha (55.67%), rangelands with no changes, irrigated lands decreased from 1454.12 to 472.64 ha (67.49%) and drylands decreased from 397.88 to 273.10 ha (31.36%). Also, results showed that land use optimization, in current land uses with no land management, decreases total soil erosion by 3.2% and increases total income by 29.7%, in current land uses with land management, decreases total soil erosion by 35.3% and increases total income by 37.2%, and in standardized land uses, total soil erosion by 47.2% and increases total income by 41.8%. Sensitivity analysis, also, showed that the change in the area of forests and orchards has the most effects on watershed income increase and soil erosion and nutrients losses decrease in Abolabbas watershed.