Over the last two decades, the need to restore rivers to the natural and near-natural state has become noticeable. One of the most important tools to achieve this goal, is to assess the hydromorphological changes of the river due to human intervention. In the present study, in order to evaluate the hydromorphological conditions of the Tajan River along the middle to lower parts (city of Sari) the Morphological Quality Index (MQI) and Hydromorphological Quality Index (HMQI) has been used. Seven reaches in 50 m riparian buffer width were selected and three quality main indicators including geomorphological, artificial, and channel adjustment were studied using satellite images of Landsat 4 in 1975 and Landsat 8 in 2019, aerial photos in 1960 and 2006, hydrological data, and data collected during the field surveys. The results showed that the studied reaches of Tajan River mainly classified as the moderate-quality class for the MQI, while it is classified as one quality class lower for HMQI, mainly as the poor-quality class. The main reason is that all the studied reaches (except reaches 1 and 7), located downstream of the Shahid Rajaee Dam, within the 30 km, which change considerably the river discharge and sediment transfer, also the extreme human impact and anthropogenic stresses in the catchment, such as land-use change. The results also showed that the method, which was used in this study, is effective, in general, index-based assessment, diagnosis of the hydromorphological problems, and an exact comprehensive realization of the response to the mentioned stresses. |
- Belletti, B., M. Rinaldi, A.M. Gurnell, A.D. Buijse and E. Mosselman. 2015. A review of assessment methods for river hydromorphology. Environmental Earth Sciences, 73(3): 2079–2100.
- Belletti, B., L. Nardi, M. Rinaldi, M. Poppe, K. Brabec, M. Bussettini, F. Comiti, M. Gielczewski, B. Golfieri, S. Hellsten, J. Kail, E. Marchese, P. Marcinkowski, T. Okruszko, A. Paillex, M. Schirmer, M. Stelmaszczyk and N. Surian. 2018. Assessing restoration effects on river hydromorphology using the process-based morphological quality index in eight European river reaches. Journal of Environmental Management, 61(1): 69-84.
- Campana, D., E. Marchese, J.I. Theule and F. Comiti. 2014. Channel degradation and restoration of an Alpine river and related morphological changes. Geomorphology, 221(2): 230-241.
- Environment Agency. 2003. River habitat survey in Britain and Ireland. Field Survey Guidance Manual, Bristol, England, 136 pages.
- Esmaili, R. and S. Valikhani. 2015. Evaluation and analysis of the hydromorphological condition of Lavij River using MQI Method. Quantitative Geomorphological Research, 2(4): 37-53 (in Persian).
- European Commission. 2000. Directive 2000/60/EC, Establishing a framework for community action in the field of water policy. Official Journal of the European Communities. 327: 1, Brussels, Belgium, 72 pages.
- Hafezi Moghaddas, N., H. Solouki, R. Jalilvand and J. Rahnamarad. 2012. Geomorphological study of river engineering of Sistan River. Journal of Geotechnical Geology, 8(1): 1-18 (in Persian).
- Ilanlou, M. and A. Karam. 2020. Evaluating the hydromorphological condition of Jajroud River using MQI Method. Journal of Applied Researches in Geographical Sciences, 20(56): 35-53 (in Persian).
- Ioana-Toroimac, G., L. Zaharia and G. Minea. 2015. Using pressure and alteration indicators to assess river morphological quality, case study of the Prahova River (Romania). Journal of Water, 7(6): 2971-2989.
- LAWA. 2000. Gewässerstrukturgütebewertung in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Verfahren für kleine und mittlegroße Fließgewässer. Berlin, Germany, 145 pages.
- Layeghi, S. and A. Karam. 2015. Hydro-geomorphological classification of Jajroud River using Rosgen Model. Journal of Quantitative Geomorphological Research, 3(3): 130-143 (in Persian).
- Maghsoudi, M., S.M. Zamanzadeh, M. Yamani and A. Hajizadeh. 2017. Assessing the changes in the Maroon River sinuosity pattern and hydrogeomorphological analysis of the case study area: Maroon River (from the source to entrance to the Jarahi River). Journal of Natural Geography, 10(1): 1-28 (in Persian).
- Mazandaran Regional Water Company. 2015. Tajan River hydrological study report. Sari, Iran, 56 pages (in Persian).
- Nosrati, K., M. Rostami and Z. Etminan. 2020. Evaluating the hydromorphological condition of Taleghan River using morphological quality index. Journal of Hydrogeomorphology, 6(21): 133-154 (in Persian).
- Rezaei Moghaddam, M.H., I. Jabbary and N. Pirozynezhad. 2016. A study of meandering, braided and anabranching channel planforms, using sinuosity and braided indexes in Gamasiab River. Journal of Watershed Management Research, 7: 272-283 (in Persian).
- Rigon, E., J. Moretto, F. Delai, L. Picco, D. Ravazzolo, R. Rainato and M. Lenzi. 2013. Application of the new morphological quality index in the Cordevole River (BL, Italy). Journal of Agricultural Engineering, 44(2): 48-53.
- Rinaldi, M., N. Surian, F. Comiti and M. Bussettini. 2013. A method for the assessment and analysis of the hydromorphological condition of Italian streams: the morphological quality index. geomorphology, 180(181): 96–108.
- Rinaldi, M., M. Bussettini, N. Surian, F. Comiti and A.M. Gurnell. 2016. Guidebook for the evaluation of stream morphological conditions by the Morphological Quality Index (MQI). Version 2. Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale, Florence, Italy, 177 pages.
- Rinaldi, M., B. Belletti, M. Bussettini, F. Comiti, B. Golfieri, B. Lastoria, E. Marchese, L. Nardi and N. Surian. 2017. New tools for the hydromorphological assessment and monitoring of European streams. Journal of Environmental Management, 202(2): 363-378.
- Rinaldi, M., R. Baena-Escudero, L. Nardi, I.C. Guerrero-Amador and B. García-Martínez. 2019. An assessment of the hydromorphological conditions of the middle and lower Guadalquivir River (Southern Spain). Physical Geography, 41(3): 1-18.
- Roustaee, Sh., A. Khorshiddoost and S. Khaleghi. 2013. Evaluation of Lighvan River duct morphology using Rosgen classification method. Quantitative Geomorphological Research, 1(4): 1-16 (in Persian).
- Scorpio, V., A. Loy, M. Di Febbraro, A. Rizzo and P. Aucelli. 2014. Hydromorphology meets mammal ecology river morphological quality, recent channel adjustments and otter resilience. River Research and Applications, 32(3): 1-13.
- Tockner, K., M. Pusch, D. Borchardt and M.S. Lorang. 2010. Multiple stressors in coupled river–floodplain ecosystems. Freshwater Biology, 55(3): 135–151.
- Toland, M. and M. Murphy. 2013. River Hydromorphology Assessment Technique (RHAT) training manual. Version 2, Northern Ireland Environment Agency. Belfast, England, 97 pages.
- Yaghoubnezhad Asl, N., F. Esfandyari Dorabad Sayyad and S. Asghari Sareskanroud. 2020. Evaluation of morphological condition of Taleghan River between 2006 to 2016. Journal of Quantitative Geomorphological Researches, 9(1): 67-85 (in Persian).
|