Effects of urbanization on river morphology of the Talar River, Mazandarn Province, Iran

Abstract

In the present study, we investigate the effects of urbanization growth on river morphology in the downstream part of Talar River, east of Mazandaran Province, Iran. Morphological and morphometric parameters in 10 equal sub-reaches were defined along a 11.5 km reach of the Talar River after land cover maps were produced for 1955, 1968, 1994, 2005 and 2013. Land cover types changed extremely during the study period. Residential lands were found to have increased in area by about 1631%, while forest land and riparian vegetation decreased in by approximately 99.9 and 96.2%, respectively. The results of morphometric and morphological factors showed that average channel width (W) for all 11.5 km of the study river decreased by 84% during the study period, while the flow length increased by about 2.14%.

Keywords:

• River morphology
• river channel change
• land cover
• GIS

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Dr. Jens Martin Turowski (Senior Research Scientist, Helmholtz Centre Potsdam, GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences) for reviewing of manuscript language and its correction before submitting.