A Framework for Indicator-Based Water Sustainability Assessment

In order to preserve aquifers, their sustainability assessment against current and future stresses is of vital importance. For this purpose, groundwater sustainability indicators are introduced as measurable variables to provide groundwater system information in a comprehensive way. The indicators can be also served as useful tools to assess sustainability of these natural resources. It should be noted that these indicators are applied to identify sustainability over time (exploitation period) and are not designated to resolve the problem. Every sustainability indicator describes a specific aspect of groundwater systems. These indicators assess groundwater resources sustainability, based on the measurable data to provide information on the quantity and quality of the resources (status and current trends), as well as focusing on social (groundwater accessibility, exploitation and utilisation), environmental (vulnerability and pollution), political, economic, and managerial aspects of the resources. The main objective of this paper is to set up a framework to evaluate the sustainability of groundwater resources, in order to ensure the implementation of sustainable groundwater management across the country and to inform the decision and policymakers on the state of sustainability for a specified groundwater resource. In this regard, 21 indicators are presented in the framework of DPSIR in six categories of quantity and quality, environmental, social, economic, and political aspects of groundwater. With the purpose of integrating the indicators to reach the final number of sustainability, the categorical scaling method has been used with a minimum score of zero (least stable) and a maximum score of 100 (maximum sustainability), and each indicator is divided into five categories.