Introduction

The continuation and stability of the river catchments depends on the passage of water and the transfer of sediment. Just as river flow information is vital for many practical applications such as water allocation, long-term planning, catchment management operations, flood forecasting, design of hydraulic structures, etc., amount of sediment yield in rivers is important from a variety of aspects such as river morphology, engineering designs to river water resource, reservoir dams, river organization to Inhibition of erosion and floods, irrigation networks, etc. are important. Proper and sustainable use of water and soil resources within the river catchments requires awareness of the spatial variations of hydrogeomorphic elements (water discharge, sediment discharge) and the determinants of these variations. Various studies refer to the key role of forests in the water cycle, soil protection and habitat protection, and show that increasing or decreasing forest cover has had an effective role in the hydrogeomorphic regime of the rivers. Due to the importance of interdisciplinary studies and understanding of interactions between different biological and non-biological components of river catchments in regards to sustainability and continuity of natural and human environment, the present study intends to be aware of the quality and quantity of relationships between forest cover and discharge/sediment yield in the Talesh catchments, NW. Iran.

Methodology

This study was based on correlation and regression analysis of the ecohydrological relationships. The research statistical population included the Talesh region and the research sample population included 12 important catchments in this region. The data used included monthly water discharge and sediment yield data of hydrometric stations on the one hand and the digital satellite images included the Aster digital elevation model (DEM) and Landsat 8 image on the other hand. Data analysis tools include geographical information system (GIS), Google Earth, SPSS and Excel. The steps of conducting the research were such that: firstly, the hydrogeomorphic variables including the mean, maximum and minimum rates of water discharge and sediment yield (S.Y), were calculated for 2020yr. Then, the 12 watersheds were extracted based on the position of the hydrometric stations from the DEM with a spatial resolution of 30 meters. The next step was to extract the forest cover from the Landsat 8 image, which was obtained on June 3, 2022. In this regard, the satellite image classification in the form of two class of forest and non- forest was through the maximum likelihood algorithm. Satellite images were classified using 300 training points. Finally, the correlation test between the forest cover and water discharge and sediment yield was performed in the SPSS software. The significant level of correlation relationships was ≤0.05.

Results and Discussion

The results of the correlation test showed that there was a significant relationship between the percentage of forest cover and the water discharge in the catchments. The correlation coefficients (R) were -0.58, 0.58, -0.46, respectively for mean, maximum and minimum discharges, indicating that definite and positive role of the forest in preventing rapid and erosive runoff. In contrast, the relationship between the percentage of forest cover and S.Y in the studied catchments was not significant and the correlation coefficients for mean, maximum and minimum S.Y are at -0.07, -0.05, -0.06 respectively, which is indicative of the weak correlational relationship between the two variables. However, the separation of catchments as large catchments and small led to improvement of correlation relationship between forest cover and S.Y, despite being insignificant, so that correlation coefficients in small basins for mean, maximum and minimal S.Y, respectively of -0.656, -0.60, 0.339, respectively. Given the significant relationships, it was possible to provide regression prediction equations for monthly mean and maximum discharge based on the percentage forest cover in the catchments. The insignificant relationships between forest cover and the sediment load can be explained by complex nature of the sediment load transfer, especially storage and re-movement of sediment load, making it difficult to establish significant relationships between the sediment yield (S.Y) and the environmental variables affecting it. On the other hand, the relationship between vegetation and the S.Y in catchments is usually complex and nonlinear, and therefore the use of nonlinear relationships may make the relationship more complete and obvious. Finally, the multiplication of the factors involved in the production and transferring of sediment load makes it difficult to model and predict the spatial variations of sediment load.

Conclusion

The present study attempted to provide a quantitative analysis of the spatial relationship between the forest cover and the rates of water discharge and sediment yield (S.Y) in the Talesh catchments by adopting an interdisciplinary approach. The results of correlation analysis show that the presence of significant and inverse relationships between the percentage of forest cover and water discharge of the catchments reflects the distinct role of the forest in reducing runoff and the incidence of dangerous floods in the Talesh catchments. In contrast, the relationships between forest cover and S.Y in the studied catchments are not significant. This conclusion shows that we are not able to provide a prediction model of S.Y variations based on the percentage of forest cover in the catchments, but the reverse relationship between the percentage of forest cover and the S.Y of the catchments implies the protective role of the forest in adjusting the process of precipitation, runoff- erosion and enhancing of the environmental quality in catchment systems. First of all, it should be noted that the forest cover variable is considered as a modulator variable or interface between the inlets and outputs of the catchments system, so it is likely that the direct role of the forest on runoff and sedimentation couldn’t be easily grasped by statistics analysis. In this context, there are various natural and human factors that may play a more effective role in the S.Y variation of the catchments than the factor of forest cover. Increasing of correlation coefficients (R) between the percentage of forest cover and S.Y in small catchments indicate that these catchments are an ideal scale for identifying controlling factors of sediment yield.