Aquatic Ecodynamics, UWA School of Agriculture and Environment, The University of Western Australia, Crawley WA 6009, Australia.
Young Researchers and Elites Club, Khorramabad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Khorramabad, Iran.
J Environ Manage. 2019 Feb 15;232:22-36. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2018.11.019. Epub 2018 Nov 20.
Assessment of watershed health and prioritization of sub-watersheds are needed to allocate natural resources and efficiently manage watersheds. Characterization of health and spatial prioritization of sub-watersheds in data scarce regions helps better comprehend real watershed conditions and design and implement management strategies. Previous studies on the assessment of health and prioritization of sub-watersheds in ungauged regions have not considered environmental factors and their inter-relationship. In this regard, fuzzy logic theory can be employed to improve the assessment of watershed health. The present study considered a combination of climate vulnerability (Climate Water Balance), relative erosion rate of surficial rocks, slope weighted K-factor, topographic indices, thirteen morphometric characteristics (linear, areal, and relief aspects), and potential non-point source pollution to assess watershed health, using a new framework which considers the complex linkage between human activities and natural resources. The new framework, focusing on watershed health score (WHS), was employed for the spatial prioritization of 31 sub-watersheds in the Khoy watershed, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran. In this framework, an analytical network process (ANP) and fuzzy theory were used to investigate the inter-relationships between the above mentioned geo-environmental factors and to classify and rank the health of each sub-watershed in four classes. Results demonstrated that only one sub-watershed (C15) fell into the class that was defined as 'a potentially critical zone'. This article provides a new framework and practical recommendations for watershed management agencies with a high level of assurance when there is a lack of reliable hydrometric gauge data.
评估流域健康状况并对子流域进行优先级排序，对于合理分配自然资源和有效管理流域至关重要。在数据匮乏地区，对流域健康状况进行特征描述并对各子流域进行空间优先级排序，有助于更好地了解真实的流域状况，并设计和实施管理策略。以前在未测量地区评估流域健康状况和对子流域进行优先级排序的研究并未考虑环境因素及其相互关系。在这方面，可以利用模糊逻辑理论来改进流域健康评估。本研究考虑了气候脆弱性（气候水平衡）、表岩相对侵蚀率、加权坡度 K 因子、地形指数、十三个形态特征（线性、面积和地形方面）以及潜在的非点源污染，利用考虑到人类活动和自然资源之间复杂联系的新框架来评估流域健康状况。新框架侧重于流域健康评分 (WHS)，用于伊朗东阿塞拜疆省霍伊流域 31 个子流域的空间优先级排序。在这个框架中，使用网络分析过程 (ANP) 和模糊理论来研究上述地理环境因素之间的相互关系，并将每个子流域的健康状况分为四类进行分类和排名。结果表明，只有一个子流域（C15）属于“潜在的关键区域”。本文为流域管理机构提供了一个新的框架和实用建议，当缺乏可靠的水文测量数据时，该框架具有高度保证。
