Journal of Spatial Analysis

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Mountain systems have an important role on meteorological variations. Different components of the mountain affect the atmospheric parameters and have essential role in atmosphereic circulation. Garmesh wind is one of the most well-known phenomena that are related to mountain systems. In this research, mechanism of garmesh wind are identified using database of garmesh wind  in the last 29 years  and using remote sensing technology from 2005 to 2010.

To survey the Synoptic and dynamic conditions of atmospheric patterns in the Garmesh wind’s events in the region, SCDATA  of several synoptic stations in Gilan province, including Rasht, Bandar Anzali, Astara and Jirandeh  are used which had continuous long-term data in 1982-2010period After Identification of days with Garmesh wind, daily images of Modis sensor of  terra and aqua  satellites in visible band and 7-2-1  band are monitored for checking the cloudiness on the  both  sides (southern and northern slops) of Alborz mountains and  data of Jirande station in southern slop of Alborz mountains are used for detecting atmospheric phenomena like precipitation and snowfall. Also for studying the synoptic and dynamic pattern of this phenomena, reanalysis data from NCEP/NCAR were  used.

    In this research, Based on the presence or absence of the atmospheric phenomenon (like rainfall and snowfall), three categories were identified.  In the first category, Garmesh winds were happened in clear sky conditions and without any atmospheric phenomena on both side of mountain’s slope. In the second category, only cloudiness was seen at the time of the Garmesh wind.  In the third category, precipitations (in this research, snowfall) were seen in southern slope of Alborz Mountains.

Statistical analysis of Garmesh wind in central plains of Gilan

Totally, Occurrence of Garmesh wind was 479 days in Rasht, during 1982-2010. The frequency of occurrence of this phenomena was in January, February, November and December and rarely, in September and June.  Clouds that observed in the time of Garmesh wind were: Altocumulus (type 4), Cirrus, CirroCumulus.

Patterns of Garmesh wind mechanisms on western half of Alborz Mountain:

• B1. Garmesh wind without any phenomena

    This category includes11 cases of total 47 studied cases. 29 January 2008 is an example of clear sky condition in the time of Garmesh wind. In this pattern, in the surface zonal extension of   Mediterranean dynamical low pressure’s contours from west of Caspian to Gilan plain and at the same time formation of cold high pressure cell on Zagros mountains caused strong pressure gradient   on southern coastal zone of Caspian Sea, As it led to the the increase of wind velocity in Rasht airport synoptic station from 11 kilometer per hour in 00 UTC to 36 kilometer per hour in 12 UTC. Dominance of warm core on southern Caspian versus dominance of cold surface air on Iran Plateau indicates adiabatic warming in northern slope of Alborz Mountains.

• B2. Garmesh wind with cloudiness

   This category includes 34 cases of total 47 studied cases.  Free of air mass’s patterns in the surface and conditions of atmospheric flows in low-troposphere that are similar to previous category, transition of height trough in mid-troposphere and high-troposphere  can be name variant component verses previous category.

• B3. Garmesh wind and precipitation (snowfall)

   This category includes 2 cases of total 47 studied cases. At the same time, surface high pressure was on Iran Plateau and low pressure system was on Caspian Sea and also Gilan providence that caused the formation of Northerly stream and west-east stream to southern coastal zone of Caspian Sea and backward of Alborz Mountains like other patterns, snowfall occurred on southern slope of Alborz Mountains. Strong southern and south-western stream and strong positive vorticity   on southern slope of Alborz Mountains by deep height trough in low-troposphere has an important role on intensification of vertical motions on lee ward of Alborz Mountains.

    Garmesh wind is an atmospheric phenomenon that occurs as a result of interaction between atmospheric systems in synoptic scale and topography on back ward of mountain. In the other words, existence of Alborz Mountain’s as a great wall has an important role in the interaction between synoptic systems and formation of Garmesh wind.

    Formation of Garmesh wind phenomena in Gilan province, is affected by extension of Siberian high pressure’s counters and sub-tropical high pressure on central of Iran Plateau and also existence of advection of pressure’s counter  like sub-polar  low pressure and or the Mediterranean Sea on north of Alborz mountains are required. Without any notification to origin of air masses, three categories has been observed based on existence or absence of Phenomena (in this research, sowfall)

    In 700 and 500 hPa, Geopotential height patterns and relative vorticity field indicate that in the first category, wide parts of Iran is affected by high height and negative vortisity like low troposphere,  during peak hours the wind. But in the second and third category (specially in third category ) existence of upper trough and  easterly extension of trough caused to reduction of height and formation of strong positive vorticity in upper level and all over of air column  in  both south and north slopes of Alborz mountains.

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The process of urbanization and development in high-risk areas such as river banks has increased the vulnerability of urban communities to environmental hazards. The banks of Khoshk River in Shiraz is one of these areas. These hazards are two parts : hazards resulted from river and waterways erosion (destruction, transportation and sedimentation) and the hazards resulted from floodings over the surrounding urban areas.

In order to prepare the literature review for this study, the various books, theses and articles were applied. Also, in order to determine the spatial position of this section, the Satellite Images and Google Earth pictures were used. The Global Positioning System (GPS) was also applied for the field observations such as collecting spatial data, extracting the kind of formations, Geological structures and faults. ArcGIS and Global Mapper 16.2 were also used for data processing and mapping.

 The geomorphological hazards in Khoshk River bank were evaluated in two parts:

1. The evaluation and analysis of the role of river and flooding processes in creating the environmental hazards for Shiraz.
2. The evaluation and analysis of the role of humans as the intensive factors of riverine and floods hazards in city.

 The evaluation of longitudinal profile in the river indicates that when the stream is entered to plain, the water moves with more speed because of faults and high steepness over the  Drake alluvial fan. One indication of this process is the presence of coarse sands and angled gravels. In this part, the erosion of riverbank is much higher than the erosion of river bed. In this section, the longitudinal profile of the river has a regular trend of concave and convex sections due to the erosion in convex parts and sedimentation in concave parts. In addition, there is a balance between deposition and digging process. The erosion is very intensive in regions where arc meander is close to  the flooding plain of the bank and causing the destruction of all facilities.

 The longitudinal profile in the river indicates that the height and slope of river has been reduced from North West to Maharloo River. The average slope of the river is 2.40%.

         In order to determine the role of flooding in creating risks for Shiraz, the floodwater discharge data were collected from Regional Water Organization. Furthermore, in order to understand the role of maximum discharge values, various experimental relations were used in the basin. The un- ordered development of urban areas especially in the north west, destruction of natural areas intensified the amount of  runoff and reduction of vegetation cover.

 The pick values of maximum discharges in Khoshk river  with the return periods of 50 and 100 years waere estimated 115m³/s to 131.4m³/s respectively which may result in overflowing of water on the streets. The human factors include the construction of bridges on the river, fencing river with stones and construction of beach, construction of bypasses for public transportation and reducing the traffic in the riverbed and trespassing to the river bed in Shiraz caused the overflowing of water from the river. The last floods in Shiraz occurred in 1987 and 2002 that caused major losses to the houses and commercial places close to Khoshk River. In order to analyze parts of river that are close to the town and have more important influences on the hazards and disasters, the satellite images of khoshk river basin in the town were taken and the river was classified in three sections with regard to risks level, river morphology and river classification based on its hazards for close areas as high risk (Maali abad Bridge limits to Fazilat Bridge and Sardkhaneh Bridge to Maharloo River), low risk(Tange sorkh to Maali abad Bridge) and medium risk (Fazilat Bridge to Sardkhaneh Bridge).

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Deforestation or vegetation degradation is one of the main drivers of global earth changes, which has significant consequences in terms of ecosystem performance and biodiversity conservation. One of the ways for studying vegetation changes as the most important indicator of land degradation is remote sensing. In this study, in order to monitor the vegetation degradation trend in Ilam Province.After obtaining and preparing the required data (410 downloaded images) in the ArcGIS and Surfer software, the multiplication, mosaic and georeferencing operations are made. Converting format of images into ASCII is the next stage of the study. By converting this format, the total number of 953552 pixels is studied within the range; after removing the lost and negative values, 328042 pixels are analyzed. Besides, using parametric statistical method of the classical linear regression and programming in R software, the trend of slope variations and significance of slope variations of vegetations are obtained for the 17-year period (2000-2016). Results of this study show that the focus of the highest trend of declining slope variations (trend of negative slop variations) is in the NDVI index across the western half of the studied area and the focus of the highest trend of increasing slope variations (trend of positive slop variations) is in the NDVI index in the center and east. Significance of the trend of slope variations also approves this claim. Thus, the focus of the highest trend of slope variations (negative) in the west and southwest of the studied area along with the highest trend of slope variations (positive) in the center and east is significant at the probable level of 0.05
 

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Streambank erosion hazard analysis by BEHI method, case study: Sajadroud stream, Mazandaran province
Extended Abstract
Introduction
River bank erosion is a complex natural process and plays an important role in the dynamic equilibrium of the river. The amount of river bank erosion affects the river plan, cross section and dimensions of the river and is the main factor controlling channel migration and the evolution of the river planform. This research was conducted with two main objectives, which are: 1. River bank erosion susceptibility analysis in incised rivers in mountainous areas, 2. Comparison of river bank erodibility with two methods original BEHI and modified BEHI.
Method
In this study, Bank Erosion Hazard Index (BEHI) and the modified BEHI method along a part of Sajadrood Stream in Mazandaran province have been investigated. The original BEHI (Rosgen, 1996, 2001) evaluates the river bank erosion field measurements. In this method, several parameters are measured, including bank height, Bankfull height, bank angle, root depth, root density, surface protection, bank material structure and stratification. From this parameters, the bank angle and height, root depth can be measured, but indicators such as plant root density and surface protection are visually estimated as a percentage. The score of each index varies from 1 to 10. The total scores of all indicators are classified into 6 groups: very low, low, medium, high, very high and extreme.
Newton and Drenten (2015) Based on the modified BEHI proposed a protocol for estimating the river bank erosion. In this protocol, the lengths of similar riverbanks are first defined as a uniform section of bank. These uniform sections can be identified due to differences in bank slope, differences in bank material and a break in vegetation. The characteristics of uniform sections are then evaluated in a pre-screening questionnaire consisting of six questions. If the answer to two or more questions is "yes", there is a high probability of erosion and the BEHI evaluation will be performed. Otherwise, the measurement will not be taken because the erosion is low or very low.
Result and discussion
The study area was divided into four reaches and 36 sites were surveyed. These river reaches have a deep bed (incised), high slope, low sinuosity, low width to depth ratio and predominant cobble sediments in the bed. They are in type A3 according to the Rosgen River classification. The height of the banks of the stream is high and its average is 2.6 meters with a minimum and a maximum of 0.4 to 9.7 meters. The average height of bankfull was 0.44 meters and varied from 0.15 to 0.85 meters. Hence, the ratio of bank height to bankfull height has been high. The root depth of plants was low and their average was 0.34 meters. Root density of plants was also low and averaged 5.7% The stream bank angle is measured from 31 to 90 degrees and an average of 51degree. The percentage of surface protection varied between 25 and 65% and averaged 42%. From a total of 36 sites, 8% are in the medium group, 39% in the high erosion category, 45% in the very high erosion group and 8% in the extreme erosion category.
Among the various variables, the β coefficients of the surface protection index and the ratio of bank height to bankfull height were -0.62 and 0.51, respectively. To evaluate the modified BEHI method, all reaches were first examined according to the pre-screening table and more than two "yes" answers were confirmed for each reach. In the modified BEHI method, 26 out of 36 sites were in the erosion group. But in the original BEHI method, 16 sites are in a very high class. The total score of the studied sites was evaluated by two BEHI methods with Pearson correlation coefficients, which obtained a coefficient of 0.21 and shows a relatively low correlation.
Conclusion
Sajadrood stream has high and steep banks due to the incision created in the channel bed. The deposition of large boulders at the toe of the streambank has caused its protection and the flood currents of bankfull are not able to carry this piece of rock. Under these conditions, calculating the ratio of bank height to bankfull height cannot indicate the erodibility of the streambank in the bankfull stage. Nevertheless, the erodible potential of the bank for larger flood currents is confirmed. Comparison of the original BEHI with the modified BEHI showed that the modified method has an overestimate than the original BEHI.

Key word: river bank erosion, BEHI, Sajadroud, Mazandaran