Considering the overuse of the aquifers and flow regime of ephemeral rivers of the country, performing
artificial recharge projects in these rivers is necessary. Although, there have been a considerable number of
researches in the artificial recharge system, there has been no method for determining the recharge efficiency
of the artificial recharge systems on ephemeral rivers yet. The goal of this research is to determine
the recharge efficiency of the artificial recharge systems by using the flood flows of ephemeral rivers. In
the suggested method, the first step is dividing the flood hydrographs of different return periods using
model between different parts of the system. So the intake efficiency of ponds is determined. Then, according
to the dimensions of recharge ponds and the penetrated water during the flood, the amount of water
that can be recharged may be determined using seepage formula. For determining the river bed infiltration,
a combination of hydraulic modeling using Hec-Ras simulation and Etcheveri method has been used.
Finally, after determining the recharge efficiency of system for different return periods of flood, the total
recharge efficiency of the system is determined by calculating the expected value. The suggested method
is applied for the artificial recharge system of Emamzade Abdollah River of Semnan, in center of Iran. The
results show that the presented method has a suitable recharge efficiency and is able to use %81 flood flow
for artificial recharge.