Document Type : Research
Authors
1
Assistant Professor, Department of Soil Conservation and Watershed Management Research, Center for Research and Education of Agriculture and Natural Resources of East Azerbaijan Province, Organization, Research, Education and Promotion of Agriculture, Tabriz, Iran
2
Expert Researcher, Center for Research and Education of Agriculture and Natural Resources of East Azerbaijan Province, Organization of Research, Education and Extension of Agriculture, Tabriz, Iran
3
Center for Research and Education of Agriculture and Natural Resources of East Azerbaijan Province, Organization of Research, Education and Promotion of Agriculture, Tabriz, Iran
10.22092/wmej.2016.113505
Abstract
Prolonged recently drought in East Azerbaijan has significantly been caused decreasing in the availability of water resources. In this time, gardens and cultivated area has been increased as irregular and disproportional in terms of climate changes. As the highest rates of water consumption is in the agricultural sector, it is very necessary to investigate the alternative water resources and optimization methods in water supplying. Now day, Rainwater harvesting is one of the practical methods for this mean. This research project was executed(in1ha area) with aims to apply gravel filter to infiltration and optimization as well as increasing water storage of harvested rain water into plant root zone. Research area is located in southwest hillslope of Own-Eb neh-ali mountain of Tabriz city. This project was conducted as Randomized Complete Block with five treatments and four replications. Treatments included: Treatment A, control, Treatment B, system by collecting pebbles and vegetation cover from its area with gravel filter, Treatment C, system by collecting pebbles and vegetation cover from its area without gravel filter, Treatment D, system by semi isolated area and gravel filter and Treatment E, system by semi isolated area without gravel filter. The effect of Gravel filter on the penetration rate and increasing of the water storage, were measured in 20 and 50 cm depths using TDR after each rainfall event. Results showed that mean soil moisture rate in Treatment D (semi-isolated system with gravel filter) in both 20 and 50 cm depth are 35.94 and 30.56 respectively and significantly higher than other treatments (p<0.05). Gravel filter performance associated with isolated system significantly reduced the water consumption of planted seedling. According to obtained results can be confirmed that rainfall harvesting though insulation levels and penetration of the collected water through gravel filter is a suitable solution to deal with agricultural drought and also it have a significant role in agriculture water supplying.
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