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Groundwater markets improve the agricultural economy by transferring water entitlements from low-efficient users to high-efficient ones to maximize productivity. Aiming at developing an efficient groundwater market, the environmental effects of the market mechanism should be assessed, and a reliable method for monitoring water consumption needs to be employed. Toward this end, this paper proposes three annual smart groundwater market mechanisms to maximize water net benefits, minimize groundwater withdrawal, and precisely measure water consumption in agricultural fields. To guarantee the aquifer's safe yield in each mechanism, a groundwater simulation model (i.e., Groundwater Modeling System (GMS)) is used to control groundwater table drawdown at the end of the planning horizon. In addition, the fields' evapotranspiration (ET) is estimated using Surface Energy Balance Algorithm for Land (SEBAL) and Mapping Evapo Transpiration at high Resolution with Internalized Calibration (METRIC) algorithm to measure the net groundwater consumption during the market. In this regard, we evaluated the algorithms' performances using observed data from a local lysimeter. They are applied to the Nough plain in Iran to assess the effectiveness of the proposed market framework. The findings illustrate their efficiency in recovering approximately 80% (23.33 million cubic meters (MCM)) of groundwater loss due to overexploitation in the study area and increasing the users' annual benefits by 10.6% compared to the non-market condition. In addition, results imply that the METRIC model approximates daily crop ET with a higher accuracy level than the SEBAL model with RMSE, MAE, and Percentage Error of 0.37 mm/day, 0.32 mm/day, and 14.92%, respectively. This research revealed that the proposed market framework is a powerful tool for reallocating water entitlements and increasing water productivity in arid and semi-arid regions. • A groundwater market is proposed to promote economic and environmental situation. • The uncertainty of available water is incorporated in the proposed methodolgoy • Designed market mechanisms recover nearly 85% of groundwater loss in the study area. • The market framework raises the economic benefit by 128.7 billion rials annually. • METRIC algorithm approximates daily crop evapotranspiration with RMSE of 0.37 mm. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mammalian species inhabiting arid landscapes exhibit various levels of mobility in order to cope with unpredictable spatiotemporal dispersion of resources. However, the space use and ranging behavior of many species in drylands is poorly understood, especially for large carnivores in Asia. Accommodating the long-distance movements of mammalian carnivores is a major challenge in conservation, particularly for threatened and highly mobile species. The Asiatic cheetah Acinonyx jubatus venaticus , a critically endangered subspecies found only in arid areas of Iran, exhibits high levels of mobility. In the absence of satellite collars, this paper outlines ranging patterns of the majority of the Asiatic cheetah’s known population. A total of 17 independent cheetahs (11 males; 6 females) were detected with camera traps that were deployed on eight reserves between January 2011 and May 2016. The animals displayed extensive movements (up to 217 km between furthest known locations) and at least nine adult cheetahs were known to move between multiple reserves in central Iran. This mobility may follow a “nomadic” ranging pattern, a non-sedentary behavior with irregular timing and movement directions. The ranging behavior documented here must be considered when designing monitoring efforts to determine population and occupancy trends for this wide-ranging elusive carnivore. Although preliminary, our results show that improving protection beyond the current network of cheetah reserves, particularly along corridors, should be a top priority to safeguard the persistence of the Asiatic cheetah. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Although many papers have been published on the role of wind speed on wind erosion, most of them did not consider the probability or return period of wind speed and its role in wind erosion. This study deals with this characteristic of wind speed in arid and semi-arid regions of Iran. Because at-site frequency analysis is not sufficient for extending wind frequency to locations with no data, the method of L-moments was applied for regional frequency analysis. The results of this study showed the Generalized Logistic (GLOG) distribution model to be the best regional distribution model for 3-h maximum mean annual wind speeds within homogeneous region based on goodness-of-fit test measurement, Z Dist. The extension of different wind quantiles to the region showed that the center, southwestern and northwestern parts of the study area could be more vulnerable regions to wind erosion than other parts. The comparison of wind energy for different wind speed return periods indicates a nonlinear trend in wind energy when the return periods increase. Therefore, it is important to apply wind frequency analysis in wind erosion control projects because the risk of higher wind speed does not increase with linear function. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]