SEFIDROOD RIVER SUB-WATERSHED-DAM-ESTUARY AND DEGRADATION MODEL:A HOLISTIC APPROACH IN IRAN

Key words: 
• degradation modeling /
• Sefidrood River watershed /
• Sefidrood Dam /
• Iran

Abstract: The major concern of this article is to address the shortcoming and outgoing effects of the human activities on the landscape patterns and their consequences in the Sefidrood River watershed in Iran. A flow of data includes three inputs;each of them belongs to one part of three zones of a fluvial system. The three parts of the Sefidrood River fluvial system include Zone 1, a sub-watershed as degradation modeling site, Zone 2, Sefidrood Dam as dam site, and Zone 3, 17km away from the Sefidrood River path to the Caspian Sea as ending point site. The degradation model in the Zone 1 provides a suitable mean for decision support system to decrease the human impacts on each small district. The maximum number for degradation coefficient belongs to the small district with the highest physiographic density, relatively cumulative activities, and a lower figure for the habitat vulnerability. The human degradation impact were not limited to the upstream. The investigation to the Sefidrood Dam and ending point of the Sefidrood River depicts that sedimentation continues as a significant visual impact in the Sefidrood Dam reservoir and the estuary.