Health variability based on SPI and estimating median and mean health indices in watersheds and townships of Kermanshah Province, Iran

Seyed Hamidreza Sadeghi (), Reza Chamani (), Mahin Kalehhouei () and Khadijeh Haji ()
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Seyed Hamidreza Sadeghi: Tarbiat Modares University, Department of Watershed Management Engineering, Faculty of Natural Resources
Reza Chamani: Tarbiat Modares University, Agrohydrology Research Group
Mahin Kalehhouei: Tarbiat Modares University, Agrohydrology Research Group
Khadijeh Haji: Tarbiat Modares University, Agrohydrology Research Group

Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, 2025, vol. 27, issue 12, No 67, 30179-30199

Abstract: Abstract The watershed health assessment provides a vital roadmap for managers to appropriately focus on hotspots and work on controlling factors threatening soil and water resources and the livelihood of the beneficiary communities. However, the spatial mapping of drought-based watershed health at various managerial scales and using different procedures have to be studied. Therefore, using two manners of average calculation, this study zoned Kermanshah Province in Western Iran at watershed and township scales based on normalized precipitation index (SPI). Towards that, the monthly SPI drought index was calculated using rainfall data from 1993 to 2020 collected for the selected stations governing the study area. Arithmetic mean and median SPI thresholds for each station were then used to determine failure and satisfactory incidents. Finally, the reliability-resilience-vulnerability (RelResVul) framework was employed using thresholds found based on mean and median SPI for the health zoning of the study province. The results showed that Rel, Res, Vul, and weighted health indices based on the arithmetic mean varied between 0.51 and 0.54, 0.36 to 0.50, 0.46 to 0.72, and 0.47 to 0.52, respectively. On the other hand, based on the median, they ranged from 0.50 to 0.51, 0.37 to 0.46, 0.39 to 0.67, and 0.43 to 0.49, respectively. Due to the internal differences in the results of health indices obtained from the arithmetic mean and median, the lowest and highest health indices in the arithmetic mean belonged to watersheds 3 and 12, and those of the median were associated with watersheds 8 and 4. Likewise, on the Townships basis, the lowest and highest health indices, based on the arithmetic mean, belonged to Harsin and Kangavar, whereas, based on the median, Sahaneh and Eslamabad Gharb had the lowest and highest levels of health, respectively. According to the current study’s findings, median-based health assessment would produce a better health zoning to be utilized by decision-makers and local managers by validating disparities between data used for assessing health indices at two study scales. In addition, the current research results can provide managers and planners with a correct understanding of the governing conditions of the province from the viewpoint of drought, based on which the necessary priorities for allocating credit and carrying out executive actions can be correctly accomplished.

Keywords: Drought Index; Ecosystem Health; Integrated Watershed Management; Spatial Watershed Health; Watershed Health modeling (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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DOI: 10.1007/s10668-024-04911-z

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