Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural ResourcesEnvironmental Resources Research2783-48321120130101A Bayesian model decision support system: dryland salinity management application116168210.22069/ijerr.2013.1682ENAmirSadoddinGorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural ResourcesRebeccaKELLYisNRM Pty Ltd Consultancy, Trevallyn TAS 7250 AustraliaTonyJakemanThe Fenner School of Environment and Society, The Australian National UniversityBarryCrokeThe Fenner School of Environment and Society, The Australian National UniversityLachlanNewhamAustralian National UniversityJournal Article20121027Addressing environmental management problems at catchment scales requires an integrated modelling approach, in which key bio-physical and socio-economic drivers, processes and impacts are all considered. Development of Decision Support Systems (DSSs) for environmental management is rapidly progressing. This paper describes the integration of physical, ecological, and socio-economic components in a Bayesian Decision Network (BDN) and its implementation in the Interactive Component Modelling System (ICMS) software to build a prototype DSS for salinity management in the Little River catchment in the upper Macquarie River basin, NSW Australia. Salinity is a major environmental problem in the country. This integrated model implemented in a DSS has been developed to co-ordinate the various disciplines involved in salinity problems, integrate data and information available, and allow the investigation of the potential outcomes arising from implementing salinity management options at the catchment scale. The analysis of the trade-offs presented in this study shows that there is no single or ultimate solution to salinity management problems for the catchment, but the Little River catchment BDN decision support system, as a decision toolbox, does clarify the impacts of management options. It assists users to reach their own conclusions on the basis of their improved understanding of the system and of the trade-offs among various outcomes arising from implementing salinity management scenarioshttps://ijerr.gau.ac.ir/article_1682_2a6ce92ee42593a91731b57f591c3901.pdfGorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural ResourcesEnvironmental Resources Research2783-48321120130101A comparative assessment of soil arthropod abundance and diversity in practical farmlands of University of Ibadan, Nigeria1729168310.22069/ijerr.2013.1683ENAgwunobi DesmondOnyekaUniversity of Ibadan, Ibadan, NigeriaUgwumba O.AlexUniversity of Ibadan, Ibadan, NigeriaJournal Article20121111The study comparatively assessed the impacts of farm activities on the abundance and diversity of soil arthropods and soil physico-chemical parameters of the Practical Year Training Programme (PYTP) farmlands, University of Ibadan, South Western Nigeria. Soil arthropods were collected from September, 2010 to February, 2011 in five sampling sites of PYTP farmlands using Berlese Tullgren Extraction method. Soil physico-chemical parameters were determined by standard procedures. A total of 19 orders of soil arthropods were obtained. Acari and Collembola account for the most abundant order while the Neuropterans were the least in abundance. Site 1 and 4 (control) recorded the highest diversity (Shannon Wiener index) values of 1.88 and 1.96 respectively while site 5 recorded the highest equitability value. The ANOVA result showed no significant difference in the values of the different parameters across the sites (P > 0.05). Chi-square test showed a significant association between the number of soil arthropods and the parameters of the five sampling sites. Pearson’s correlation coefficient (r) revealed a positive significant relationship between soil moisture content and the Collembolans and a negative significant relationship with Coleoptera. This study revealed a reduction in the abundance and diversity of soil arthropods in the PYTP farmlands due to consistent agricultural activities that impact the environment. Sustainable farming practices should be adopted so as to ameliorate the impact of cultivation practices on soil organisms and restore the integrity of the soil ecosystem.<br />Key words: Abundance, Diversity, Soil arthropods, Physico-chemical parameters, PYTP farmlands.https://ijerr.gau.ac.ir/article_1683_cbc994b843da6d1866f119a88687d3e6.pdfGorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural ResourcesEnvironmental Resources Research2783-48321120130101Effects of biological practices on soil stability in a desertified area of Iran3038168410.22069/ijerr.2013.1684ENHamid RezaAsgariDept. Arid Zone Management
Faculty of Watershed and Arid Zone Management
Gorgan, Gorgan University of Agriculural Sciences and Natural ResourcesJournal Article20121028The rehabilitation of sandy desertified land in various dryland ecosystems by different management practices has a great potential to increase aggregate stability and improve soil quality. However, plants in general may have a different ability to sustain soil. The objective was to determine the effects of reclamation practices including Haloxylon ammodendron and Atriplex canescens plantation on some soil properties, soil erodibility and the relationships among soil properties and erodibility index in desertified land of Jupar in Kerman province, southern Iran. According to the research objectives, 24 soil samples from 0-20 cm depth were taken from each area, i.e. reclamation sites and control area (untreated land) by systematic – random method. Soil properties such as soil texture, structure, pH, EC, CaCO3, gypsum, bulk density, organic carbon and soil organic matter were measured. The mean weight diameter (MWD) and geometric mean diameter (GMD) were used as soil erodibility indices. The results of our study showed that MWD had positive correlation with organic carbon, CaCO3 and soil acidity values. Furthermore, according to the effect of Haloxylon on aggregate stability and its positive role in modifying soil physical and chemical properties, and also the height of this species, which can contribute in wind erosion control in this area, therefore, it is concluded that Haloxylon ammodendron had better performance in desert rehabilitation project and to stabilize sandy land in Jupar area than Atriplex canescens.https://ijerr.gau.ac.ir/article_1684_67fc197ea350694ee38132221769c00f.pdfGorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural ResourcesEnvironmental Resources Research2783-48321120130101Optimization of Agricultural BMPs Using a Parallel Computing Based Multi-Objective Optimization Algorithm3950168510.22069/ijerr.2013.1685ENYongboLiuUniversity of LouvainHailiangShenDepartment of Geography, University of GuelphWanhongYangUniversity of GuelphJingYangSingapore-MITJournal Article20121122Beneficial Management Practices (BMPs) are important measures for reducing agricultural non-point source (NPS) pollution. However, selection of BMPs for placement in a watershed requires optimizing available resources to maximize possible water quality benefits. Due to its iterative nature, the optimization typically takes a long time to achieve the BMP trade-off results which is not desirable in practice. In this study, an optimization model, consisting of a multi-objective genetic algorithm, ε-NSGA-II, in combination with the Soil Water and Assessment Tool (SWAT) and the parallel computation technique, is developed and tested in the Fairchild Creek watershed in southern Ontario of Canada. The two objectives are to minimize BMPs costs and maximize total phosphorous load reduction. The parallel computation allows the run of multiple SWAT models simultaneously and can reduce the ε-NSGA-II optimization time significantly to achieve the objective. The Pareto-optimal fronts generated between the two objective functions can be used to achieve desired water quality goals with minimum BMP implementation cost to support spatial watershed management and policy making.https://ijerr.gau.ac.ir/article_1685_39813f733a9c2294c368db43af2f0c69.pdfGorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural ResourcesEnvironmental Resources Research2783-48321120130101Simulation of Water Balance Components Using a Distributed Hydrological Model in Taleghan Watershed5164168610.22069/ijerr.2013.1686ENShahinMoradi Pourdepartment of watershed management
GUASNRAbdolrezaBahremandDepartment of Range and Watershed Management, Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural ResourcesHosseinZeinivandDepartment of Range and Watershed Management, Lorestan UniversityAliNajafinejadDepartment of Range and Watershed Management, Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural ResourcesJournal Article20120707Water changes information in the hydrological system, in time and space, as an environmental issue takes heed of managers and decision makers in watershed management and river engineering, which can be addressed by using spatially distributed modeling. In this study simulation of water balance components in Taleghan mountainous watershed is performed using the spatially distributed hydrological model, WetSpa. This area is located on southern hillside of the eastern north part of Alborz Mountain range in Iran with mean annual precipitation of 591 mm, mean slope of 40.48%, and mean elevation of 2750 m. The model implementation is based on 85 m and daily spatial and temporal resolution, respectively. By applying the spatial parameters derived from three base digital maps and daily time series data as model inputs, peak discharges and flow hydrographs are predicted at any point of stream network and spatial distribution of water balance components and hydrologic characteristics are simulated. The simulated and observed hydrographs are compared using statistical and visual methods. The results revealed a very good agreement between simulated and observed data. Considering evaluation model outputs, accuracy of 83.5% based on the Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency criterion and the Aggregated Measure of 85.6% indicate very good performance of model and well reproduction of stream flow. The Nash-Sutcliffe criterion for the model validation period is 77%. Estimation of runoff 73.5% comparing 74.9% observed runoff indicates the model efficiency and capability in simulation of watershed runoff and the other water balance components.https://ijerr.gau.ac.ir/article_1686_f69f3b6a08d944fa0bc55e193e14fc08.pdfGorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural ResourcesEnvironmental Resources Research2783-48321120130101The relation between the number of sunspots and fluctuation in the trend of climatic components in Iran during recent decades6587168710.22069/ijerr.2013.1687ENGholamrezaRoshanDepartment of Geography, Golestan University, GorganJournal Article20121010This analysis was conducted on 31 synoptic stations in Iran. Initially, the Mann-Kendall test was administered in order to analyse the trend of alterations of these two components over time and the results suggest that 16% of the stations show significant relationship with annual precipitation (positive and negative). More stations showed significant relationships between sunspots and minimum annual temperature (74.19%), maximum annual temperature (48.38%) and mean annual temperature (67.8%). The amounts of the above correlations include all of the significant trends, whether those that show inverse significant trends or those that demonstrate direct significant trends. On further investigating the relationship between variations in the number of sunspots and temperature, 5 temporal ranges were used. This analysis was conducted on raw data (without a moving average) and also data with a moving average of 5, 8, 11 and 22 year. The general conclusion drawn from different precipitation temporal ranges of data was that a significant amplification (reduction) for Iran’s stations with a frequency coefficient of 25.16% was observed. But when this relation is reversed, the frequency coefficient turned out to be 12.92. Likewise, for different components of temperature, the inverse relation between the number of sunspots and alterations of temperature possesses a higher frequency position among the stations. This value is 15.46 % for the minimum temperature, 16.12% for the maximum and 12.89% for the annual average temperaturehttps://ijerr.gau.ac.ir/article_1687_6079553ec5eaa0808f545b13d02b2986.pdfGorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural ResourcesEnvironmental Resources Research2783-48321120130101The SLEUTH Land Use Change Model: A Review88105168810.22069/ijerr.2013.1688ENGargiChaudhuriDepartment of Geography and Earth Science, University of Wisconsin-La CrosseKeithClarkeDepartment of Geography, University of California Santa BarbaraJournal Article20121024Land use change is driven by interaction in space and time between humans and the environment that can be captured by computer simulation models (Veldkamp and Verburg, 2004). In the last few decades, land use change models have played an important role in understanding the causes, mechanisms and consequences of land use dynamics. SLEUTH is an open source cellular automata based land use change model which was first applied in San Francisco Bay area (California, USA) by Clarke and Gaydos (1997) to simulate the urban growth of the region. Over the last 15 years, SLEUTH has been applied to multiple cities and regions worldwide and has gone through numerous modifications. Clarke et al. (2007) and Clarke (2008a) provided detailed reviews of the model and its application from its initial days until about 2005. This paper provides a review of the literature with special focus on technical modifications of the model since 2005 and updates on the model applications as published until 2012.https://ijerr.gau.ac.ir/article_1688_7eecf8813c80d3ca017280879c5a6360.pdf