Evaluation of water and soil protection measures using the global WOCAT method (case study of Lepoi watershed (Pers))

Dissertation for Master's degree (M.Sc.)

Direction: Watershed Management

Abstract

Investment in water and soil protection measures requires careful investigation and design based on recorded experiences and evaluation of the effects and benefits of the measures. In order to compare water and soil protection measures in different places, it is necessary to have a standard method approved by all experts in the field of watershed management. This research intends to present the results of the application of the global programmatic standard method (WOCAT) in the evaluation of the technologies carried out in the field of Lepoi watershed in Fars province. With a field visit to the study area and identification of existing technologies, a report was prepared for each technology. Referring to the watershed experts of the natural resources department of the province and the city, interviewing the people of the region, taking the necessary soil samples, preparing financial reports, and finally completing the main WOCAT questionnaire with a field visit. The results of this research show that the creation of a watershed management cooperative and the implementation of water and soil conservation technologies such as the cultivation of productive almond trees instead of poor pastures on hills with a slope of 16 to 30% have caused the control of all types of erosion (surface and furrow) in the Lepoi watershed. One of the signs of the success of this project is the significant reduction of surface runoff and the other is the reduction of soil erosion from 3.64 to 2.4 tons per hectare per year, which is equivalent to a reduction of 1.2 tons per hectare per year. With the implementation of almond planting technology, an area of ??170 hectares of poor pasture land has been turned into almond orchards. The above plan caused the most important erosion in the basin to be controlled (water erosion) and the vegetation cover increased by 50%. The profit-to-cost ratio after the implementation of this technology is equal to (1.4) and the ratio of income from the new technology of "cultivating fruitful trees" to the previous technology of "poor pastures" is equal to 26.5. In soil compaction, soil erosion decreased from 3.6 tons per hectare per year to 3.3 tons per hectare per year. With the implementation of this measure, 20 wells were built for agricultural purposes, the area under the ship equal to 100 hectares was added to the agricultural lands of the region, and the earth dam prevented floods. 900 million Rials have been spent for the implementation of this plan, which generated an income of 1 billion Rials per year. The profit from the implementation of the above plan is equal to 1.1. With the implementation of the management plan, vegetation has increased, runoff has decreased, and soil erosion has decreased from 3.6 tons per hectare per year to 1.3 tons per hectare per year. The profit of implementing the management plan is equal to 1.1 times compared to before. With the implementation of the mounding plan, soil erosion has decreased from 3.6 to 3.25 tons per hectare per year. The profit from the implementation of the mold design is equal to 1.08. Another effect of these projects has been the reversal of the migration process and the return of many native youths at a rate of 10%. The actions carried out in the region have had successful effects and according to the supplemental WOCAT questionnaire, almond planting has a special importance and position compared to other actions among the residents of the region.

Key words: Lepoi watershed, WOCAT, evaluation, water and soil protection technologies.

Chapter First

General

1-1- Introduction

Since a watershed is a natural system that is also influenced by external unnatural factors (human, social, economic, political), the way of handling and managing this system to achieve the desired goals is very complex and sensitive. Therefore, setting up detailed programs and plans without considering social and human factors will not be very successful.

Today, water and soil protection is of global importance. Kofi Annan, the former secretary of the United Nations, states that 1/3 of the world's lands have been degraded (Rahimi, 2005; quoted by UNSDI [1] 2005). Internationally, 92% of soil has been directly or indirectly degraded by agriculture; 28% by agricultural experiments, 35% by overgrazing, and 29% by cutting forest trees for the development of new agricultural lands (Rahimi, 2009; quoted by Simonos [2] 1996).

Water and soil protection technologies fight against land degradation effectively in different ways, but most of the agricultural land is still not effectively protected and water and soil protection needs to be further expanded. Potential ecosystem benefits go beyond reducing soil erosion and water loss. These include the hydrological function of the watershed to ensure the base flow, flood reduction, and purification of water resources, as well as carbon sequestration and maintenance of biodiversity on the ground and underground (Liniger[3] et al., 2008).

With the rapid increase in world population, the amount of human exploitation of land and nature has increased and as a result has caused the destruction of land and nature more and more quickly, which is one of the most important problems of the 20th century. The first is especially in third world countries and also Iran. In order to try to prevent this trend, governments and relevant international organizations have been using the principles and methods of watershed management since the 1960s (Liniger et al., 2008).

Investment in water and soil protection measures requires careful investigation and design based on recorded experiences and evaluation of the effects and benefits of the measures. Collective efforts and sufficient resources to acquire knowledge and learn from the successes of water and soil protection are necessary and necessary; Therefore, these investments determine the value of the spent budget on an ecological, economic and social basis. Every day in the world, land users and water and soil protection specialists conduct many researches and experiments related to soil management, land fertility improvement and resource protection and they gain a lot of knowledge, many of which are of high value, but unfortunately, due to the lack of a standard and uniform evaluation method, it is not possible to compare the results of different projects in different places with different ecological conditions. Soil is one of the successful types of water and soil protection.

According to the existing shortage at the international level, the WOCAT program was proposed and approved by the World Association of Water and Soil Protection in 1992. The World Survey of Protection Solutions and Technologies [4] or WOCAT is a global network of institutional cooperation that has been in place since 1992 to collect and standardize information by collecting, describing and creating usable data from successful examples of water and soil protection technologies and solutions in the world. This work method is designed according to the individual needs of specialists and different institutions at various scales from local to national, regional and continental, and in order to acquire and complete the valuable experiences of water and soil protection specialists. This method of work gives the possibility for experts and scientists of water and soil protection to share the knowledge obtained from their projects with each other and increase their knowledge and use them in their research and help each other in forming the best decisions at the farm level and at higher levels (Rahimi, 1389). and the analysis of water and soil protection experiments, and at the same time, a framework has been created for the evaluation, monitoring and exchange of water and soil protection measures (Rahimi, 1389). style="direction: rtl;">Watershed management is the coordinated, integrated and lawful management and exploitation of the natural, agricultural, human and economic resources of a watershed in such a way that the water and soil resources are completely preserved and do not suffer negative consequences (Ziaei, 2010). The lowest point is concentrated and removed from it (Ziaei, 1380).

1-2-3- Actions[6]

The elements or components of technologies[7] are water and soil protection (Linegar, 2008).