Ali Mohtashami

University of Nizwa · UNESCO Chair on Aflaj Studies

Aflaj refers to a traditional irrigation system found in Oman, which has been used for centuries to sustainably manage groundwater resources. These resources play a vital role in meeting various consumption needs, including agriculture, domestic, and industrial. The article, for the first time, introduces the concept of “hydraulics of aflaj”, empha...

Due to the growth of population and industrial advancements in Iran, especially Birjand, the use of groundwater makes the aquifer’s balance becomes negative. This negatively affects both quantity and quality conditions of groundwater. To prevent this, suitable water management is necessary for Birjand aquifer. In this study, to overcome negative gr...

Groundwater modeling is often associated with uncertainties due to incomplete knowledge of the subsurface system or uncertainties arising from variability in model system processes and field conditions. So far, not much research has been conducted to investigate the uncertainty of the groundwater flow model. Studies in this field focus on statistic...

Groundwater extraction through aflaj has been a long-standing practice with minimal modifications since its invention. This research for the first time, presents a plan for the rehabilitation of aflaj systems in Oman from a technical point of view. Using the analytical hierarchy process (AHP) in Expert Choice software. Nine famous aflaj systems in...

As an arid country, Oman's falaj flowrate directly affects the environmental, agricultural, and ecological characteristics of its regions. For this reason, it is vitally important for water decision managers, farmers, and governments to have an accurate prediction of falaj’s flowrate. The present research aims to develop a new method for flowrate o...

Qanat is an ancient water harvesting technology which is used for irrigation, agriculture and drinking in many countries of the world. A key element of preserving this heritage is calculating their protection area. In this study, the main aim is depiction of the hydraulic harim of qanat with the usage of the meshless numerical method. Afterward, th...

In this research, a simulation–optimization (S/O) model is used in order to estimate aquifer parameters on two aquifers. In this model, meshless local Petrov–Galerkin (MLPG) is used for simulation purpose and modified teaching–learning-based optimization (MTLBO) algorithm is engaged as optimization model. Linking these two powerful models generates...

Most parts of Iran have arid and semi-arid climates. Therefore, many deserts and playas have been formed in these areas. In the present study, the return of saline water due to the groundwater head increase in the aquifers with the usage of SUTRA numerical model, was investigated. In order to assess the wedge behavior of saline water in transient s...

As the groundwater quantitative monitoring aimed to determine the factors affecting the aquifer behavior plays an important role in its regional management, studying the temporal and spatial groundwater level variations requires a comprehensive monitoring network. Effort has been made in this study to introduce a new linked simulation–optimization...

Determination of wells’ capture zones is one of the most remarkable issues that should be carried out in each aquifer. Methods used for depicting this area has been divided into two simple and complex method. Through the simple one several mathematical equations are used and in the complex approaches, numerical models are applied. In this study, th...

In the past, seepage was the main problem in water conveyance in arid and semiarid areas. Adding soil to water and making it muddy was a common way to reduce seepage, especially in new construction earthen channels or qanats. However, this technique is used to convey water from Baladeh Qanat to farmland in eastern Iran while the large amount of its...

The complicated behavior of groundwater system in an arid aquifer is generally studied by solving the governing equations using either analytical or numerical methods. In this regard, analytical methods are just for some aquifers with regular boundaries. Numerical methods used for this aim are finite difference (FDM) and finite element methods (FEM...

In recent decades, due to the population growth and low precipitation, the overexploitation of ground water resources has become an important issue. To ensure a sustainable scheme for these resources, understanding the behavior of the aquifers is a key step. This study takes a numerical modeling approach to investigate the behavior of an unconfined...

Recently, calibration based methods are considered to determine the quantities and locations of all leakages in a water distribution network (WDN), simultaneously. In this paper, the accuracy of detecting leakages using Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) in two networks including a hypothetical and a laboratory network is investigated. A novel method is...

The present study employs a mathematical method, i.e., Particle Filter (PF), to accurately estimate the parameters of three standard aquifers. The method is linked to a new developed numerical method, i.e., meshless local Petrov-Galerkin based on the moving kriging method (PF-MLPG-MK), to determine the aquifer parameters such as hydraulic conductiv...

Having the exact values of boundary conditions is one of the effective way to develop precise groundwater models. In the present study, the exact value of constant head boundaries in Birjand aquifer is specified with the usage of particle filter linked to meshless groundwater model. Particle filter known as one of the common data assimilation metho...

Having a pervasive knowledge about the groundwater balance conducts the engineers and managers to have an optimal management about these resources. In the present study, with using meshless local Petrov-Galerkin, one of the meshless methods in the field of fluid dynamic, groundwater balance is computed for a real field aquifer. The independency of...

In this research, a simulation-optimization model is utilized to determine the optimum location of wells on two unconfined aquifers (steady condition and transient state) with different boundary conditions. Meshless local Petrov-Galerkin (MLPG) and particle swarm optimization (PSO) are employed for the simulation model and optimization algorithm, r...

In this study capture zones of wells for the first time is determined and depicted with using a numerical method. Meshless local Petrov-Galerkin is one of the meshless methods which is not used in this field. In this article groundwater flow is simulated by using MLPG method in confined aquifer which has four extraction wells in transient state and...

The prediction of groundwater level fluctuations is one of the most remarkable issues in water resources management, especially in arid and semiarid regions. The present study uses a numerical meshless method, named meshless local Petrov-Galerkin, to predict the groundwater level over a ten-year period. This method makes up for the shortcomings of...

Water of Baladeh's qanats travels around 15 Kilometers to arrive the lands in Ferdows by a channel. Farmers in order to reduce seepage in transition channels try to make the water muddy. In this research, with measuring seepage in both muddy water and pure water channels, the effects of making muddy water in seepage are investigated. The Seepage in...

In recent decades, due to reduction in precipitation, groundwater resource management has become one of the most important issues considered to prevent loss of water. Many solutions are concerned with the investigation of groundwater flow behavior. In this regard, development of meshless methods for solving the groundwater flow system equations in...

The complex behavior of the aquifer system is studied by solving a set of governing equations using either analytical or numerical methods. Numerical techniques like finite difference method (FDM) are being used to solve differential equation in some simple cases. Recently Meshless methods are being developed in engineering fields. They are used fo...