ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Using Windbreaks for Decreasing Lake
and Reservoir Evaporation:
A Case Study from Iran
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1
Department of Civil Engineering, University of Sistan and Baluchetan, Zahedan, Iran
2
Department of Civil Engineering, Chabahar Maritime University, Chabahar, Iran
Submission date: 2017-12-16
Final revision date: 2018-04-10
Acceptance date: 2018-04-16
Online publication date: 2019-01-18
Publication date: 2019-03-01
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2019;28(4):2289-2298
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ABSTRACT
Evaporation from reservoirs is an important issue frequently occurring in dry, hot regions like Iran.
Since the laboratory and field studies of evaporation control are difficult, time-consuming, and costly,
and the investigation of various possible modes is not possible, numerical models with high capabilities
are widely used to analyze the hydrological processes. This article aimed to investigate the effect of
windbreaks on reducing evaporation of lakes and reservoirs in dry areas and determine the most optimal
location and layout of windbreaks using the FLUENT model. Initial investigations showed that wind is
the most important factor of evaporation in the Chahnimeh Region of Sistan, Iran. The results showed
that if solid windbreaks with 25% casement (height of 2 and distance of 66 m) are vertically installed in
a northwesterly direction, evaporation can be effectively reduced. Although the use of wind breaks in
Chahnimeh can help significantly reduce evaporation, it cannot be fully controlled. That is why diagonal
windbreaks with 30, 45, and 60º were designed to integrate the windbreaks with other evaporation
control methods such as solar panels. The results showed that 60º had the greatest amount of evaporation
reduction and were integrated with other methods to control evaporation.