Soil evolution along an alluvial-loess transect in the Herat Plain,western Afghanistan

Afghanistan is located in the Eurasian loess belt,however,there is little information on the soils in the area.Loess has covered the Herat Plain in western Herat City,Afghanistan.Despite the diversity of landform and parent material,there is no information on the soil and landform evolution in this area.The objectives of this study were to identify the soils along a transect of different landforms in the Herat Plain and determine the role of geomorphic processes on the soil and landform evolution.Five pedons from an alluvial fan,the depression between alluvial fan and piedmont plain,saline and non-saline piedmont plains,and the flood plain of the Hariroud River,were sampled.Then,the physical-chemical properties,mineralogy,and micromorphology of the samples were determined.Results showed that the soil parent material in the piedmont plain is loess,whereas,in the flood plain it is a combination of loess and river alluvial sediments.Calcification,lessivage,salinization,and gleization are the most important pedogenic processes.The calcification and lessivage appear to be the result of a wetter climate during the late Quaternary,whereas the present topography causes the gleization and salinization.Clay coatings on carbonate nodules and iron nodules are abundant pedofeatures in the Btk(argillic-calcic)horizon.Iron oxides nodules are common in the soils of the flood plain.The formation of palygorskite in both alluvial-and loess-derived soils implies the onset of aridity and the trend of increase in environmental aridity in the region.It seems that after the formation of a well developed paleosol on the alluvial fan in a more humid climate in the past,the piedmont plain has been covered by loess deposits,and the calcification,gleization,and salinization cause the formation of weakly developed surficial soils.This study highlights the role of the late Quaternary climatic changes on the evolution of landforms and soils in western Afghanistan.

Coping with water scarcity in Kashafroud G-WADI Basin, Iran: climate change or growing demands?

This paper assesses the various factors contributing to climate change in the region of the Kashaffoud G-WADI Basin in Iron; quanti- fies the local impacts of climate change, especially local water scarcity; and simulates and discusses several proposed methods to combat these impacts. Hydrologic and climatic data are statistically analyzed and VENSIM modeling is used for various simulations of water resources in the basin. Results show that the natural climate changes affecting Kashafroud Basin include increased tempera- ture, less rainfall, more frequent droughts, and changes in rainfall patterns, all of which are local symptoms of climate change in recent years. However, the most important challenge in the basin is the overexploitation of surface and groundwater resources to meet the growing water demands, especially domestic needs. Changes in land use, reallocation of water uses, groundwater depletion, and deg- radation of the quality of surface waters have all contributed to significant changes in the environmental features of this basin, and are the main reason why water demands now exceed the renewal capacity of the basin. Proposed response measures include reallocation of resources among different uses, inter-basin water ~ansfers, drawing water from six small dams on the Kashafroud River, reducing groundwater extraction, and replacing groundwater extraction for agriculture by reuse of urban wastewater. This study concludes that although changes in global climatic pararneters have altered environmental features in the basin, local factors, such as water utilization beyond the renewable capacity of the basin, are more significant in worsening the impacts of climate change.