Spatial modeling of environmental vulnerability in the biggest river in Iran using geographical information systems.

Background And Purpose: The Karoon River, located in southwest Iran, has always been considered as an important water source for people in the southward areas. Khuzestan Province is one of the strategic provinces of Iran thus the development of this province is significantly affected by the water pollution of the Karoon River system. Therefore, the current study aims to assess the environmental vulnerability of the Karoon River as well as preparing a classified map of its vulnerabilities using the fuzzy logic method via the geographical information systems (GIS).

Methods: In this study, the required data were gathered from the Water and Electricity Organization of Khuzestan Province. Afterward, the primary maps were created by converting the map of the study origin into a raster format. Then, fuzzy membership was performed by placing the digits in the range of zero and one using the fuzzy membership function. The primary maps were mixed, and finally, the risk map was prepared by applying the fuzzy overly function.

Results: According to the results, a clear trend of water quality deterioration exists since water moves from upstream to downstream areas. The ecological vulnerability of the Karoon basin is mostly located at a low-level (78.05 %) rank. The vulnerable areas were ranked extremely high, high, medium, and low as 2.09, 8.09, 12.08, and 78.05, respectively.

Conclusions: Considering that 22 % of the Karoon River drainage basin in Khuzestan province is considered to have a medium to extremely high risk range, it is mandatory for the authorities to take precautions to prevent the entry of polluting sources into this precious river.