Water and Irrigation Management

Water and Irrigation Management

Investigation of the Impact of Climate fluctuations on the Chadegan Plain Aquifer, Iran

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors
Seyedeh Saba Hashemi
Kumars Ebrahimi
Seyed Javad Sadatinejad
Alireza Moghaddamnia
Department of Environmental Sciences and Technologies, Faculty of Energy and Sustainable Resources Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
10.22059/jwim.2026.410098.1285
Abstract
Climate fluctuations are a fundamental and unavoidable challenge in the present era, with widespread impacts on all aspects of the environment; aquifers, as vital resources, are affected by these changes. This study examines the impact of climate fluctuations on the Chadegan Plain aquifer of Iran. For this purpose, the groundwater level was examined as the main criterion of the GRI index. The years 2002-2023 were selected as the time period due to complete data and information, and the necessary calculations and evaluations were performed on the data. The drought status of two wells in western Chadegan and three wells in Se Rahe Ghorghor were investigated from the 12 piezometric wells in the region, and the highest rate of groundwater level drop occurred in these two wells during the time periods 2015-2018 with nine meters and 2006-2011 with 18 meters, respectively. Evaluation of the wells in the study area with the GRI index shows the good performance of this index in the Chadegan plain. The results showed a decreasing trend in the GRI index values during the time periods 2006-2011 and 2015-2018, and the highest degree of GRI drought in the wes of Chadegan well and Se Rahe Ghorghor well was recorded with values of -2.47 in 2018 and -2.54 in 2011, respectively. Also, the Spearman nonparametric test was used to evaluate the correlation between the meteorological drought index SPI and the hydrogeological drought index GRI. The results indicated no significant trend, and the main reason for the drop in groundwater level can be attributed to human factors.
Keywords
GRI Index
Groundwater Level Fluctuations
Spearman Nonparametric Test
SPI
Subjects
  1. Bagheri, S. (2016). Climate profile of Chadegan County. Isfahan Meteorological Administration. (In Persian)
  2. Bagheri, S. (2019). Revealing climate change in Chadegan. Isfahan Meteorological Administration.(In Persian)
  3. Behzadi, F., Javadi, S., Yousefi, H., & Moridi, A. (2022). Investigation and analysis the effect of drought on groundwater aquifers in Iran (Case study: Shahrekord plain). Water and Irrigation Management, 12(2), 327-348. doi: 10.22059/jwim.2022.341590.982. (In Persian)
  4. Chenari, M. (2006). Analysis of changes in various drought indices using the Markov chain; in the climatic samples of Southern Alborz. Tehran: Department of Irrigation and Reclamation Engineering, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Tehran. (In Persian)
  5. Davamani, V., John, J. E., Poornachandhra, C., Gopalakrishnan, B., Arulmani, S., Parameswari, E., Santhosh, A., Srinivasulu, A., Lal, A., & Naidu, R. (2024). A Critical Review of Climate Change Impacts on Groundwater Resources: A Focus on the Current Status, Future Possibilities, and Role of Simulation Models. Atmosphere, 15(1), 122. https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos15010122
  6. Ghafari, S., Moradi, H., & Modares, R. (2018). Comparison of Temporal and Spatial Changes of Groundwater Level in Isfahan-Borkhar, Najafabad and Chadegan Plains. Physical Geography Research, 50(1), 141-160. doi: 10.22059/jphgr.2018.226430.1006999 (In Persian)
  7. Hsu, K. C., Wang, C. H., Chen, K. C., Chen, C. T., & Ma, K. W. (2007). Climate induced hydrological impacts on the groundwater system of the Pingtung Plain, Taiwan. Hydrogeology Journal, (5), 903-913.
  8. Jamshidi Avanaki, M., Ebrahimi, K., & Hashemi, S. (2025). Assessment of the GRI Index Compliance in Groundwater Drought in the Qazvin Plain, Iran. Water and Soil, 39(1), 16-1. doi: 10.22067/jsw.2025.90890.1447. (In Persian)
  9. Kordovani, P. (1991). Geohydrology. University of Tehran Publications.
  10. Kundzewicz, Z. W., Krysanova, V., Benestad, R. E., Hov, Ö., Piniewski, M., & Otto, I. M. (2017). Uncertainty in climate change impacts on water resources. Environmental Science & Policy, 79, 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsci.2017.10.008
  11. Mair, A., & Fares, A. (2010). Influence of groundwater pumping and rainfall spatio-temporal variation on stream flow. Journal of Hydrology, 393, 287–308.
  12. McKee, T., Doesken, N., & Kleist, J. (1993). The Relationship of Drought Frequency and Duration to Time Scales. Proceedings of the 8th Conference on Applied Climatology*, (pp. 179-184). Boston, Massachusetts: American Meteorological Society.
  13. Mendicino, G., & Senatore, A. (2008). A Ground water resorce index (GRI) for drought monitoring and forecasting in a Mediterranean climate. Hydrology, (357), 282-302.
  14. Noshadi, M., & Ahadi, A. (2020). Analyzing Piezometers’ Behavior to Determine the Lag Time of the Rainfall Effects on the Groundwater Level Fluctuations in the Alluvial Plain of Shiraz by Using SPI and GRI Indices. Journal of water and soil science, 23(4), 299-312. http://jstnar.iut.ac.ir/article-1-3831-en.html (In Persian)
  15. Shakiba, A., Mirbagheri, B., & Kheiri, A. (2010). Drought analysis using SPI index and its effects on groundwater resources in East of Kermanshah. Iran.Geography Journal, 25, 105-124. (In Persian)
  16. Stagge, J., Hayes, M., & Svoboda, M. (2017). Drought Monitoring: The Standardized Precipitation Index. Klüver Academic Publishers.
  17. Viseyazdi, S., Faridhosseini, A., & Mosaedi, A. (2017). Correlation analysis of meteorological and groundwater droughts in the Mashhad Plain. 16th Iranian Hydraulics Conference. https://civilica.com/doc/727525 (In Persian)
  18. Zareian, M. J. (2021). Sensitivity analysis of the effect of climatic and non-climatic factors on groundwater level fluctuations (Case study: Najafabad plain). Water and Irrigation Management, 11(3), 473-484. doi: 10.22059/jwim.2021.325230.882. (In Persian)
  19. (2021). Climate change and water. Intergovermental panel on climate change. Retrieved from https://www.ipcc.ch
  20. (2020). Global environment outlook: Assessment of global water resources. United nations environment programme. Retrieved from https://www.unep.org/geo
  21. (2018). Water resources management: A policy perspective. World bank. Retrieved from https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/waterresourcesmanagement (Last access Oct 05, 2022)
Water and Irrigation Management
Volume 16, Issue 1
Summer 2026
Pages 127-140