Strategic management and planning to use Qanat's potentials in cities (Case Study: Sanglaj Qanat in Tehran)

Qanat is a natural underground structure to drain and transfer ground waters, which has been used for more than 3000 years in Iran. There are more than 600 qanats in the megacity of Tehran and Sanglaj Qanat, located in the downtown, is one of the oldest qanats among all. The goal of this paper is to find some approaches to rehabilitate this qanat in order to use qanat’s potential in sustainable water resources management in cities. Therefore, the required water quality parameters were measured and monitored at first. According to the results, Sanglaj qanat’s water has been polluted and there are too many external threats. Using SWOT, an applied analytical method, the managing strategies were planned. Then, these strategies were prioritized by QSPM method. Based on the strategies with high priority, the final rehabilitation plan for Sanglaj Qanat was prepared. This plan includes two approaches to achieve the goals: sustainable water resources management and recycling.