Surveying riparian zone and water quality of Jajrud River

Abstract

In this paper the riparian zones and water quality of Jajrud River were examined. Human and economic factors affecting the river ecosystem have been assessed for ten years. The evaluation results show that the total exploiters of agriculture, forestry and fisheries, 12.02%, the number of horticultural exploitation is 15.75%, the number of beekeeping exploitation is 18.01%, the number of active agricultural cooperatives 50%, the number of issued building permits has increased by 270.45%, the number of active service cooperatives covered by the General Directorate of Cooperatives has increased by 56.25%, the construction of freeways, highways and main roads has increased by 89.69%. Examination of qualitative parameters including nitrate, electrical conductivity, total dissolved solids, BOD 5 , COD, pH, phosphate and ammonium shows that BOD 5 , TDS and NH 4 exceeds 14 times, 16 times and 17 times more than allowable limits respectively. Surveying riparian zones shows that a total of 168 ha of areas around the river need to be rehabilitated to restore vegetation that was effective in reducing and controlling non-point water pollution.