Journal of New Approaches in Water Engineering and Environment

Abstract Evaporation is one of the most significant losses from water levels, especially in desert areas. Because a large amount of water is stored in reservoirs, water losses evaporate from the surface of water reservoirs, which is one of the sources of water loss. So far, various solutions have been proposed to reduce the rate of evaporation. In the present study, which was conducted with the aim of reducing the rate of evaporation from Class A evaporation pans, it was attempted to investigate for the first time the efficiency of three types of balls as evaporation reducing coatings. The balls used, including three types of two-hole and six-hole balls and without holes with a diameter of 7 cm, made of propylene were used. In order to evaluate the performance of these coatings in reducing the evaporation of Class A pans for 2 months from 1400/6/1 to 1400/7/30. Based on the Tukey and Duncan mean test, the three ball samples had a significant difference of 5% in terms of changes in evaporation rate and temperature with the control. The results showed that holes without holes with 70.6% efficiency had the largest share in reducing evaporation, while two-hole and six-hole balls with 45 and 30% efficiency were in the next priorities. Finally, holes without apertures were identified as

Abstract The aim of this study is to investigate the combined effect of insulation parameters, mirrors as well as the amount of water added to tanks on the amount of water production in solar distillation systems. For this purpose, the present study in 2020 in four solar distillation systems, in two directions north - south and south - north, which is installed on the roof of the greenhouse distillation irrigation; It was performed in the Faculty of Water and Environmental Engineering of Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz. The experiments were evaluated in two weeks under the conditions (presence of insulation and closed mirrors; presence of insulation and openness of mirrors; each case in one week). The water depth in the tanks was constant and two centimeters. The results showed that in the presence of ionolite insulation, the openness of the mirrors in the tanks with north-south cover slope caused a decrease in production by up to 10% and in tanks with south-north cover slope caused an increase in production by up to 26%. The openness of the mirrors in tanks with a slope of the north-south cover reduces the rate of evaporation and thus reduces the amount of water added by up to 8%; And in reservoirs with south-north cover slope caused a decrease of up to 2%. The optimal conditions for the experiments were if the mirrors were closed in the north-south direction and the mirrors were open in the south-north direction.

Abstract Due to the lack of facilities and commitment in climate stations establishment in large scale interpolation has become an important technique in spatial mapping studies. In this study, the Kriging interpolation technique as a prevalent technique has been explained and 17 Kriging models were evaluated, in order to select the most suitable one, using a case study. Because of increasing trend of drought in Iran and management necessity of water resources, meteorological drought of Fars province has been investigated in this study. For this purpose the calculated SPI-3 months of the Fars province synoptic stations were calculated. SPI-3 months is widely applied in agricultural drought studies. The empirical semi-variogram of the SPI-3 of the stations was calculated and graphed, fitting 17 Kriging models to select the best one using the cross-validation technique. Results showed that the Linear, Power, Square root, Logarithmic and Gaussian models were the best interpolation techniques for SPI-3 spatial mapping. Geostatistic methods could be used to determine the adequacy of the rainfall gauge stations, especially in the western mountainous region of the province. A complete-length of data could modify the results. The Gaussian model as one of the best-fitted models defines good spatial continuous of precipitation in the region. The semivariograms were fitted to data with the hypothesis of no precipitation trend. Considering the linear and non-linear trends of data, and analyzing error maps may result in better models.

Abstract Considering the plant's positive response to nitrogen, farmers consume nitrogen fertilizers as much as possible. Excessive consumption of nitrogen fertilizers imposes additional costs on farmers, environmental pollution and direct negative impact on human health. Therefore, it is important to determine the amount of nitrogen-nitrate in the soil, plant and irrigation water in order to use nitrogen fertilizers optimally. In addition, according to the nitrogen balance, the amount of nitrogen deficiency is calculated and given to the plant, therefore the overuse of fertilizer is avoided. Most of the usual methods for nitrate measurement are time-consuming and expensive, spectroscopic measurement (spectrophotometer) makes it possible to determine the amount of nitrogen-nitrate in each of the soil, water and plant in the shortest time, inexpensively and accurately. In this research, we introduced a quick method of measuring the amount of nitrate in each of the water, soil and plant. The results are presented in terms of practical units in the field and soil for farmers and students, including kilograms of nitrogen per ton of product and the amount of nitrogen given through irrigation or nitrogen available in the soil in kilograms per hectare.

Abstract Geomorphological landscapes are the foundations of natural resources investigations of the watersheds. The results show that the study area is geomorphologically composed of mountain units (mountains and hills) and plain (types of eroded and covered plains). The results show that the mountain unit is 28%, which includes mountains and hills including the Middle Eocene, Upper Eocene (Lower, Middle and Upper) and Oligocene and Pliocene satellite hills. The plain-head geomorphology unit in the study area has an area of 50384.71 hectares, which occupies 71.114% of the area. Geomorphological type of erosion plain with 2 geomorphological facies. The geomorphology type of the plain head of the upandage of two geomorphological facies and the type of the covered plain head have been identified in the study area of 16 geomorphological facies. In the covered plain type, wind erosion has been predominant in most of the facies. Most of the area is composed of abandoned plains (56%) due to residential areas, rangelands and abandoned agriculture. From the facade point of view, most of the area consists of small and medium grain sandy plains with low to medium density and agricultural lands.Geomorphological studies have been considered as the basis and basis for other studies in the preparation of desertification executive plans. Using all studies of basic or physical resources and socio-economic studies, which are collectively referred to as biophysical resources, planning will be done to deal with desertification in each of the geomorphological facies.

Abstract Drought is a natural phenomenon that has a significant impact on human life, and examining its temporal and spatial changes can be effective in dealing with the effects of this phenomenon. The aim of this study is to investigate the meteorological drought trend using the index (SPI) and the Mann-Kendall test at the level of Lorestan province. Using the index (SPI), the precipitation data of 9 synoptic stations and 23 rain gauge stations in the statistical period (1377-1397) were analyzed at the province level. The results showed that, in general, the province faced drought in 1987 and 1978. The results of the Mann-Kendall test showed that the trend of changes in the drought index of Seleseh city was significant and incremental at the probability level of 95, and the rest of the cities were not significant. Also, considering the number of drought categories in different years for selected stations, the driest station, Kohdasht station and the wettest station, Noorabad station were introduced.

Abstract In this study, 35 sondages were carried out in the reservoir and axis of Ravar underground dam, as well as the depth of the bed stone and the topography was determined using geoelectric data. The results showed that A section represents a two-layer model and the upper layer is the alluvial layer. B section also represents a two-layer model. The thickness of alluvial layer varies between 6 meters at the S29 to 15 m at the S8 sondage site. The C section also represents a two-layer model. The thickness of alluvial layer varies between 5 meters at the S28 to 11 m at the S7 sondage site. The alluvial thickness during the H section is low and the bed stone is marl type and around the S28 sondage site is probably conglomerate type. Simultaneous investigation of geoelectric sections shows that in terms of strait width and alluvial thickness, the proposed axis for underground dam construction has been chosen in a suitable location.

Abstract Drought is one of the most chronic environmental instabilities that has extensive environmental effects. In this research, the evaluation of standardized precipitation index (SPI) based on precipitation and temperature data in Kashan synoptic station for the statistical period of 2019-1970 has been done. In order to check the trend, Mann-Kendall and Pettie tests were used. According to the results in Kashan station, from 1992 to the first quarter of 1994, with 27 months, it had the longest drought period and from 2015 to 2018, it had the longest drought period. The results of the Mann-Kendall test for the parameter of total monthly and annual precipitation showed a significant downward trend of precipitation in December. For the parameters of maximum temperature, minimum temperature and average temperature, the average temperature showed a significant downward trend in the months of April, August and November.The time series of minimum temperature and maximum temperature parameters showed similar results, so that these parameters had a homogeneous trend in most months. Of course, this trend for the maximum temperature time series in March was heterogeneous and significant at the 5% confidence level. The Pettie test for the average temperature parameter showed different results, and the time series for this parameter in the months of April, June, July, August, September, November and on an annual scale had a heterogeneous trend. In general, it can be acknowledged that the awareness of the process and characteristics of drought plays an important role in the management of dry areas.

Abstract Sediments are the main absorbers of metal pollutants. Therefore, it is essential to study them. In this paper, 72 samples of surface sediments from six stations were selected using Grap sampler in the summer of 2015 to determine the concentration of heavy elements such as cadmium, nickel, lead, and vanadium in the surface sediments of the North Yaran oilfield in Hur Al-Azim wetland. An atomic absorption device was used to determine the concentration of heavy elements, and SPSS and EXCEL software were used for statistical data processing. According to the results, the average concentration of cadmium, lead, vanadium, and nickel was 1.4, 48.87, 32.65, and 87.33 mg/L, respectively. Sediment quality standards in the United States (NOAA) and in Canada (ISQGs) were used to compare these values with the allowable contamination levels of elements in sediment. According to the results, the average concentration of cadmium and lead in the present study was higher than the standard indicators of ERL and TEL and lower than the standard indicators of ERM and PEL. Average concentration of nickel was higher than these standard indicators. The results showed that nickel has more pollution than other metals, consistent with other research conducted in the region. Based on results, the amount of pollution of heavy metals studied in this research was not dangerous and critical. Still, it is necessary to prevent the increase in metallic toxicity in the region's environment by adopting preventive approaches.

Abstract Khuzestan province has fertile plains for agriculture. In recent years, the regular supply of water in Izeh plain and Bagh Malek has been a concern, especially for agricultural purposes. With the help of a pumping station, the water of these areas reaches the heights overlooking the area from the reservoir of the Karun 3 dam and moves by gravity towards the delivery points after passing through a tunnel. The normal level of the dam during operation is 840 meters, the maximum level of the reservoir is 845 and the top level is 850 meters from the level of the Azad sea, also the minimum and maximum level of water intake from the lake of Karun Dam 3 is equal to 800 and 845 meters, respectively. Basic studies and numerical methods to achieve the goal of the current research, which is to optimize the level to which water is pumped, it was done. According to the optimizations, the lowest cost will be at the level of 970 if the tunnel level of 1000 is considered in the initial plan.

Abstract Background and Objectives
Several physical, chemical, and biological methods are used to extract nitrate from water, which may be expensive and lead to the production of additional materials and toxic wastes, and are widely used.
Materials and Methods
In this study, the ability of activated carbon as adsorbent for the removal of nitrate, ammonium and phosphate from the water were evaluated.
For this purpose, the effect of contact time, initial concentration and pH on the absorption of nitrate, ammonium and phosphate on activated carbon were investigated. Absorbent surface characteristics studied by FTIR and SEM and their surface area were determined by methylene blue. Kinetics models to describe the psuedo-first-order and pseudo-second-order kinetics data and models to describe Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm adsorption data were used.
Results
The results showed that the absorption of nitrate, ammonium and phosphate, over time, increased respectively after 60 and 120 minutes, reached its maximum. Ammonium and nitrate in activated carbon absorption maximum at pH=2 and the maximum adsorption at pH=8. By increasing the initial concentration of nitrate removal efficiency resulted in increased nitrate removal at a concentration of 100 mg/l of 86/88 percent and the highest removal efficiency of ammonia at a concentration of 5 mg/l of 92% and maximum removal of phosphate at a concentration of 7 mg/l 77 percent.
According to the obtained results, the studied activated carbon had a high ability to remove nitrate, ammonium and phosphate pollutants.

Abstract Groundwater is one of the most valuable water resource in Iran, which is mainly influenced by rainfall patterns in a region. In the present study, 30-years rainfall and groundwater level data were used in the three watersheds of Galikesh, Ramian and Mohammadabad to model the rainfall and groundwater level. The prediction of the groundwater level using the rainfall data for the next 12 months was done using the Transfer Function (TF) and using SAS and MINITAB software. Validation of predicted values was done using MAD, RMSE and MAPE indices. The results showed that according to the autocorrelation diagrams, all time series have seasonal trend with a period of 12 months. The results of the autocorrelation diagrams showed that in Galikesh and Mohammadabad watersheds, rainfall has a direct effect on the groundwater level with a delay of three months, but in the Ramian watershed, this delay was one month. It was also found that the transfer function model had a good performance in fitting the monthly groundwater level in all 3 studied watersheds.