Determining the Effective Distance of Wind Shelter Index by Defining Innovative Index Named Virtual Wind Shelter in a Non-Snowy Watershed

The wind’s effectiveness was compared in different points of a watershed using a quantity called The Wind Shelter Index.The wind’s effectiveness was compared in different points of a watershed using a quantity called The Wind Shelter Index. It is necessary to choose a distance called the effective distance in the process of this index determination. The criterion already used for this purpose was only usable in snowy places. According to the wind shelter index usability in some phenomena that are not in snowy areas, the use of this index will be applied. This study uses observational data of snow surveys from 258 points in Samsami Basin to introduce a new index called “Virtual Wind Shelter” that can be used to choose the effective distance of the area applicable in snowy and non-snowy places. The results showed that the index introduced in this study has the capability of replacement with the correlation of wind shelter index with snow depth criterion.