Environmental Erosion Research Journal

Changes in a river's geomorphologic pattern would be considered in all environmental plannings because this change has special consequences on land ownership properties, the use of cultivable lands on rivers' banks and supply of constructional materials. Sand and gravelmining of the river beds are among factors that lead to changes in river bed patterns. In this research, we investigate geomorphological changes in sections of Kashkan River in Khoramabad County from Kashkan Ancient Bridge to Cham Davood Village, approximately 14 km distance. There are three sand and gravel mining sites in this short length of river which have caused major changes in the bed and banks of the case study river. We used a temporal resolution aerial photos of 1381 (A.H.) and Cartosat images of IRS by 5 meter resolution of 2009 of the study region. We used ARC/GIS, AutoCAD, and Global mapper to calculate and measure geometrical parameters that changed during this time period. By comparing spatio-temporal changes, results showed that sand and gravel mining was a major factor of about 50 percent of changes that occurred in the study area. River dynamic, bridge and curving dams’ construction in the river course were other factors of changes.