Network Analysis of Power Structure of the Organizational Stakeholders In Charge of the Garmsar Plain Water Resources Management

Identifying organizational stakeholders in water resources management is one of the requirements for making plans operational and applying participatory management on water resources. Based on the network analysis method with a comprehensive perspective, we could study the structural patterns resulted from mutual relations of different stakeholders in a multi-faced and complicated system and investigate their roles in establishing an integrated and participatory system for water resources management. This study aims to identify the power structure and its distribution as a function of relations and setup of the involved organizations in water resources management in Garmsar plain by applying network analysis pattern. In this regard, at first, 29 organizations related to water resources management were identified based on ecological network boundaries. The information exchange and cooperation among them were then investigated by half-structured interviews. Finally, the power, influence, and control of each stakeholder were determined based on degree centrality, beta centrality, and eigenvector centrality. The results of this study demonstrated the inequality of power structures among organizational stakeholders in establishing a participatory management system in the considered region.