656
© IWA Publishing 2015 Water Science & Technology: Water Supply
|
15.3
|
2015
Customization of the OSSEM model for application to annual data from the Talar aquifer, Northern Iran Nazila Sedaei, Abolghasem Akbari, Leila Sedaei and Jonathan Peter Cox
ABSTRACT There are several principal driving forces behind the damaging coastal water resources depletion in many countries, including: high population growth, degrading water resources due to overexploitation and contamination, lack of awareness among local beneficiaries regarding sustainable management, and deficient government support and enforcement of conservation programs. To ensure a water resource system is productive in coastal areas, holistic and comprehensive management approaches are required. To address the aforementioned issues, a combined methodology which considers anthropogenic activities, together with environmental problems defined as the Overall Susceptibility Socio-Ecological System Environmental Management (OSSEM) has been investigated. The OSSEM model has been applied successfully in Spain based upon daily time series data. This research is ground breaking in that it integrates the OSSEM model in a geographic information system (GIS) environment to assess the groundwater contamination based on annual time series data and the assessment of system management by means of an overall susceptibility index (OSI). Centered on OSI indicators, the renewal, salinization and water deficit potentials in the Talar aquifer were estimated to be 4.89%, 4.61%, and 3.99%, respectively. This data demonstrates a high susceptibility in terms of environmental pollution, salinization, and water deficit. Key words
| GIS, OSSEM, overall susceptibility index, Talar aquifer
Nazila Sedaei Faculty of Agricultural Engineering, Sari Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University, PO. Box 737, Sari, Iran Abolghasem Akbari (corresponding author) Faculty of Civil Engineering and Earth Resources, University Malaysia Pahang, Lebuhraya Tun Razak, 26300 Gambang, Kuantan, Malaysia E-mail:
[email protected] Leila Sedaei Faculty of Natural Resources, Shahrekord University, Shahrekord, Box 890, Shahrekord, Iran Jonathan Peter Cox Caribbean Institute for Meteorology and Hydrology, Barbados
INTRODUCTION The Talar basin is situated between 35 540 0″–36 470 0″ lati-
load in superficial water resources, important abstractions
tude, and 52 350 10″–53 240 7″ longitude specifically in
from the underlying aquifer are required to satisfy escalating
Mazandaran province to the south of the Caspian Sea, North-
demands, a consequence of which is water stress. This stress
ern Iran. The water resources in the aforementioned basin
has resulted in the deterioration of the freshwater resources
are influenced by diverse activities, but overwhelmingly via
in terms of both (aquifer overexploitation, dry watercourses),
agriculture, which accounts for more than 60% of the area’s
and quality (eutrophication, organic matter pollution, saline
total water use. Rice, grain, fruits, cotton, tea, tobacco, and
intrusion).
W
W
W
W
sugarcane are cultivated in the Talar basin, principally in
The Talar basin is characterized by two linked sub-
the lower reaches, bordering the Caspian shore. In addition,
systems including anthropogenic and the environmental
oil wealth has motivated industrial development across
pressures. To investigate the first subsystem it is necessary
Mazandaran province, notably in food processing, cement
to obtain sufficient water of an acceptable quality. In
manufacturing, textiles, and fishing (Soleimani et al. ).
addition, there is always a challenge raised from the human
Furthermore, the area is a leading tourist destination due to
effects on natural environmental conditions (Gentile et al.
its proximity to the capital of Iran, Tehran, situated to the
; EPA ). Water availability, and its quality in Talar
south. As a direct result of the grand scale of activity in the
basin, as with many other similar coastal lagoons, depends
basin, and the resulting mediocre quality and high sediment
decidedly on anthropogenic activities and environmental
doi: 10.2166/ws.2015.021
