Nowadays, there is a growing emphasis on Inter-basin water transfer projects as costly activities with ambiguous effects on environment, society and economy. Since the concept of climate change was in its embryonic phase before 1990's, the majority of these projects planned before that period have not considered the effect of long term variation of water resources. In all of these numerous operational and under-construction projects, an intelligent selection of the best water transmission protocol, can help the governments to optimize their expenditures on these projects ,and also can help water resources managers to face climate change effects wisely. In this paper as a case study, Dez to Qomrood inter-basin water transfer project is considered to evaluate the efficiency of three different protocols in long term. The effect of climate change has been forecasted via a wide range of GCMs (Global Circulation Model) in order to calculate the change of flow in the basin's area with different climate scenarios. After these calculation, a water allocation model has been used to evaluate which of these three water transmission protocols (Proportional Allocation (PA), Fix Upstream allocation (FU), and Fix Downstream allocation (FD)) is the most efficient logic switch economically in a framework including both upstream and downstream stakeholders. As the final result, it can be inferred that Fix Downstream allocation (FD) protocol can supply more population especially with urban water for a fix expense and also is the most adapted protocol with future global change, at least in the first round of sustainability assessment.

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By using model vegetation (e.g., synthetic bars), vortex structures in a channel with vegetation patches have been studied. It has been reported that vortex structures, including both the vertical and horizontal vortexes, may be produced in the wake in the channel bed with a finite-width vegetation patch. In the present experimental study, both velocity and TKE have been measured (via Acoustic Doppler Velocimeter—ADV) to study the formation of vortexes behind four vegetation patches in the channel bed. These vegetation patches have different dimensions, from the channel-bed fully covered patch to small-sized patches. Model vegetation used in this research is closely similar to vegetation in natural rivers with a gravel bed. The results show that, for a channel with a small patch (Lv/Dc = 0.44 and Dv/Dc = 0.33; where Lv and Dv are the length and width of patch and Dc is the channel width, respectively), both the flow passing through the patch and side flow around the patch have a considerable effect on the formation of flow structures beyond the patch. The results of further analysis via 3D classes of the bursting events show that the von Karman vortex street splits into two parts beyond the vegetation patch as the strong part near the surface and the weak part near the bed; while the middle part of the flow is completely occupied by the vertical vortex formed at a distance of 0.8–1 Hv beyond the vegetation patch, and thus, the horizontal vortexes cannot be detected in this region. The octant analysis is conducted for the coherent shear stress analysis that confirms the results of this experimental study.

In presence of vegetation patches in a channel bed, different flow–morphology interactions in the river will result. The investigation of the nature and intensity of these structures is a crucial part of the research works of river engineering. In this experimental study, the characteristics of turbulence in the non-developed region downstream of a vegetation patch suffering from a gradual fade have been investigated. The changes in turbulent structure were tracked in sequential patterns by reducing the patch size. The model vegetation was selected carefully to simulate the aquatic vegetation patches in natural rivers. Velocity profile, TKE (Turbulent Kinetic Energy), turbulent power spectra and quadrant analysis have been used to investigate the behavior and intensity of the turbulent structures. The results of the velocity profile and TKE indicate that there are three different flow layers in the region downstream of the vegetation patch, including the wake layer, mixing layer and shear layer. When the vegetation patch is wide enough (Dv/Dc > 0.5, termed as the patch width ratio, where Dv is the width of a vegetation patch and Dc is the width of the channel), highly intermittent anisotropic turbulent events appear in the mixing layer at the depth of z/Hv = 0.7~1.1 and distance of x/Hv = 8~12 (where x is streamwise distance from the patch edge, z is vertical distance from channel bed and Hv is the height of a vegetation patch). The results of quadrant analysis show that these structures are associated with the dominance of the outward interactions (Q1). Moreover, these structures accompany large coherent Reynolds shear stresses, anomalies in streamwise velocity, increases in the standard deviation of TKE and increases in intermittent Turbulent Kinetic Energy (TKEi). The intensity and extents of these structures fade with the decrease in the size of a vegetation patch. On the other hand, as the size of the vegetation patch decreases, von Karman vortexes appear in the wake layer and form the dominant flow structures in the downstream region of a vegetation patch.

Climate change will affect hydrologic patterns in the Middle East over future decades. Already limited water resources will become further limited, creating further challenges for water allocation protocols. While there is no integrated climate/water allocation framework to develop sophisticated dynamic allocation patterns, determining the economic value of water in various markets is one way to optimize water allocation. In this paper, a non-linear optimizer code through the Conjugate Gradient Method has been applied to optimize water allocation in the Rudbar Lorestan Hydropower system (Iran) across four sectors (agriculture, industry, power, and urban). Climate scenarios and direct benefits of water in each sector have been considered as the inputs of the model for a 37 years period (2014-2050). The results of optimized allocation show that while each particular sector is impacted substantially from different climate scenarios, the total direct benefits of water in the basin vary between the narrow ranges of 14.75-16.75 billion USD for the same period. By considering the major characteristics of flexibility and adjustability, this methodology (Optimization via Economic Value of Water) can be considered an adaptive approach for addressing climate change and water allocation challenges.