‫ﻢﻴﺤﺭﻟﺍﻥﻣﺤﺭﻟﺍﻪﻟﻟﺍﻡﺴﺑ‬

Islamic Republic of Iran

Ministry of Jihad Agriculture
Forest, Range and Water shade Organization

Drought and Desertification monitoring

and assessment:
Early Warning Systems for Mitigating the
Effects of Drought

CRIC-1
Rome-Italy 11-22 Nov. 2002
 Table of contents
• 1- Background
• 2- Some managerial activities for drought
mitigation
• 3- A case study for monitoring flood
management
• 4- Outcome of monitoring
• 5- Conclusion
 1- Background
• 1-1- Drought and Desertification
• 1-2- Distribution of Dry lands
• 1-3- Perspectives
• 1-4- Sequence of Drought Impacts
• 1-5- Water resources
• 1-6- Comparison of water resources
 1-1-Drought and Desertification

• Although, the meaning of drought depends

upon the habitat of the addressees but
international organizations have tried to reach
to its unique definition.
• According to UNEP, if the amount of yearly
average precipitation is less than 0.65 of mean
evapotranpiration in an area, in such a case it
can be categorized as dry land.
1-2- Distribution of Dry lands
Area Hyper Arid Semi- Dry- Total
arid arid sub
humid

World 7.5 12.1 17.7 9.9 47.2

Asia 6.5 14.7 16.3 8.3 45.8

Iran 35.5 29.2 20.1 4.9 89.7

 1-3- Disciplinary Perspectives on Drought

• Meteorological
• Hydrological
• Agricultural and
• Socio-economic
 Hydrological Drought

• Hydrological Drought is associated with the

effects of periods of precipitation (including
snowfall) shortfalls on surface or subsurface
water supply.
• Although all droughts originate from the
deficiency of precipitation, hydrologists are more
concerned with how this deficiency plays out
through the hydrologic system.
 1-4- Sequence of Drought Impacts

• The sequence of impacts associated with meteorological,

agricultural, and hydrological drought further emphasizes
their differences. When drought begins, the agricultural
sector is usually the first to be affected of its heavy
dependence on stored soil water. Soil water rapidly can
be depleted during extended dry periods. If precipitation
deficiencies continue, then people depended on other
sources of water will begin to feel the effects of the
shortage. Those who rely on surface water (i.e. reservoirs
and lakes) and subsurface water (i.e. ground water), are
usually the last to be affected short-term drought that
persists of 3-6 months may have little impact on these
sectors, depending characteristics of the hydrologic
system and water use requirements.
 1-5- Water resources
• It is estimated that total precipitation on the land
of the world, is 110 thousand billion cubic meter,
about 63.8 percent of this avapo-transpirates and
its remaining make our drinkable water resources
(Postel, 1997). Asia continent, having only 32.7
percent of total world’s lands, but it controls 37.4
percent of world’s water resources (Gleick,
1997). The portion of Iran is less than 0.37
percent of the worlds water resources, while its
land form more than 1.2 percent of world’s lands.
 1-6- Comparison of water
resources
Land Surface Precipitatio Precipitation Evapotran. E/P (%) Acquisition a.c. %
areas (m.h.) n mm. (b cubic (b cubic capasity
meter ) meter ) b.cubic
meter

The 1301 831 110000 70180 63.8 39820 36.2

wor 2.6
ld

Iran 162 243 400 281 70.3 119 29.7

 2-Managerial Activities in Drought
Mitigation
• -Establishment of drought stroke group in the
capital and all provincial centers.
• -Identification of drought affected areas by
collecting data and information.
• -Determination of vulnerability indices of
different areas and distribution of financial
resources.
 2-Managerial Activities in Drought
Mitigation (cont.)
• Enhancing financial support by the government
for affected areas .
• -Determination of priorities, policies, allocation
of budget, and facilities, using public
participation in plans and projects aimed at
mitigating drought effects.
 2-Managerial Activities in Drought
Mitigation (cont.)
• -Cooperation in setting up workshops, seminars
and conferences related to drought in the country.
• -Reporting drought situation to international
organizations and distribution of world supported
resources.
 3-A Case Study for Monitoring flood
Management
• 3-1-Goals of flood spreading technique:
• 3-1-1-Goals
• 3-1-2- Objectives

• 3-2-Scientific Justification
• 3-3-Feasibility Study
 3-A Case Study for Monitoring flood
Management
• Flood management has been adapted in drylands
of Iran for many centuries.This easy to use and
applicable approach could be carried out in at
least 14 million hectare of lands in Iran to
exchange disturbance of floods to profitable
water and yield production (Kousar, 1374,1380).
• The method, now, has been supported to be
useful for helping 800 million hungry men in the
world (FAO).
 3-A Case Study for Monitoring flood
Management(cont.)
• Assessment of cultivated vast fields, located in
uplands of the ghanat in Khorasan province,
shows that our grand fathers managed floods to
store the god's blessing in order to cope with
disaster of drought and also desertification.
• In this way, two functions of flood management
merged with each other. In other words,
spreading flood in uplands, not only irrigate the
cultivated fields but also store flood water to feed
the underground aquifers (Kousar, 1372).
 3-1- Advantages of flood Spreading
technique
• Flood spreading in an alluvial fan, is a
multipurpose technique that is also less
costly and easy to implement in the field.
• 3-1-1-Goals:
-To control floods
-To store flood water in aquifers for efficient
use
 3-1- Advantages of flood Spreading
technique(cont.)
• 3-1-2-Objectives:
• -To Change unproductive alluvial fans to ranges
forests and agricultural forms
• -To stabilize the origin of sand dune movement
• -To eliminate man-made desertification
• -To enhance agricultural based employment
- To improve environmental condition
-To encourage public participation
 3-2- Scientific Justification
• In Iran, there is 43 million hectare of lands,
1/4 of the country surface, suitable for
storage of water in underground dams, but
interestingly, only 14 million-hectare are
sufficient for controlling and storing 50-
billion cubic meters of floodwater.
 3-3-Feasibility Study
To find best and suitable places for establishment of
the flood spreading project the following
disciplines should be taken into account:
• Meteorological and ecological studies
• Watershed assays with its general studies
• Pedology of the location
• Hydrology
• Socio-economic studies
• Geomorphology
• -Hydrogeology
 4-Outcome of Monitoring
• Monitoring of ten stations,totally covering a
land area of about 20 million-hectare, has
shown:

-Increasing the number of wells and volume of

water,
-Addition of agricultural land area,
-Increasing range production capacity,
-Storage of the huge volume of floodwater
 5- Conclusion
• Application of specific monitoring system for
different drought disciplines(Meteorological,
agricultural and hydrological) is essential
• Significance of drought depends upon drought
classification
• Hydrological drought is the most dominant type
in Iran
• Flood spreading technique is a multipurpose ,
easy to use and less costly activity
 5- Conclusion(cont.)
• Reduction of damages incurred by flood
water is considerable
• Reduction of poverty and desertification
control
• Monitoring the flood water spreading in
this case study has opened a new horizon
in coping with drought and desertification
impacts