Comparison of Hydrology and Eco Hydrology Methods in Environmental Flow Estimation of Mahabad River

Subject Areas : Water Resource Management

nazak rouzegari ¹ , mohammad taghi sattari ² , hajar feyzi ³

1 - Msc, Departement of Water Resources Engineering, Faculty of Civil Engineering, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran *(Corresponding author).
2 - Associate Professor, Department of Water Resources, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering, University of Tabriz, Iran.
3 - Ph.D Student, Department of Water Resources, Faculty of Agricultural Engineering, University of Tabriz, Iran.

Received: 2016-10-15 Accepted : 2017-01-18 Published : 2019-11-22

Keywords: Mahabad River, Desktop Reserve Model, Flow Duration Curve Shifting, Environmental Flow, Hydrology Methods,

Abstract :

Background and Objective: In water resources management and operation, especially for dam reservoirs, supplying the minimum water demand for protecting the life of the different plant and aquatic species is essential. Allocating the environmental flow for Mahabad River, as one of the most important rivers in the Urmia Lake basin, is very crucial. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to estimate the minimum environmental flow for Mahabad River using Eco-Hydrology methods. Method: In this study, the environmental flow for Mahabad River was estimated by five methods, namely Tenant, Tessman, Flow Duration Curve (FDC) Shifting, Desktop Reserve Model (DRM), and Flow Duration Curve Analysis (FDCA). Findings: According to the results obtained in this study, to protect Mahabad River in the acceptable minimum environmental condition, the FDC shifting model considering class B (35.1% MAR (mean annual runoff), equivalent to 2.75 m³/s) and DRM considering class B/C (27.24% MAR, equal to 2.13 m³/s) led to approximately similar and acceptable results. Discussion and Conclusion: Generally, the FDC shifting model and DRM that consider different hydrological classes are preferable to other methods, and these methods can be used to determine the environmental flow for Mahabad River.

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