Assessment of Iran's Water Resources Quality (2004-2014)

Evaluating the past trends and existing predictions about the quality of water resources in Iran illustrate a gloomy condition in the near future. The spatial distributions of population and the pollution loads are uneven throughout the country and there is much more pressure on quality of water resources in regions with high population and economic activities. Also, climate change and periodic droughts can worsen the current water quality condition. In this paper, considering limited available data, the potential pollution loads of surface and groundwater resources in main basins in Iran are estimated for some water quality indicators such as Nitrate, Phosphorus and Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD). To develop a conceptual model for assessing quality of water resources in Iran, a Driving Force-Pressure-StateImpact-Response framework is utilized. By evaluating different components of this framework, the main driving forces and pressures on water quality state of Iran are determined and the main responses for managing the current situation are discussed.