water resource management

The dependence of rural communities, and especially the agricultural sector, on water resources is undeniable. During the last few decades, water shortages have caused more attention to the optimal management of these resources. Water security includes the capacity of the population to protect and maintain sustainable access to sufficient quantities and quality of water for sustainable livelihoods, human well-being, and socio-economic development. This research aims to develop strategies for ensuring water security in rural communities of Ilam province. This research has used the prospective approach. At first, semi-structured interviews were conducted, which were analyzed by content analysis. The sample size in the final report was 17 experts, university professors, and farmers. The results of this part were returned to the respondents for a questionnaire. This research showed that the realization of water security in the studied area requires attention to the areas that have the most significant ability to influence other components. In this way, "determining the trustee of rural development, making policies for crisis management in the village, monitoring and checking the amount of water consumption in farms/installation of digital meters, changing the water price according to the type of cultivation, forming water harvesting associations and developing a new irrigation system" among other things can cover the target

There are very valuable habitats and ecological areas in Iran. One of these areas is Sistan and Baluchestan province, which is known as the habitat of the swamp crocodile, the only representative species of the order of crocodiles in Iran. Preservation of this valuable species and its environment in the conditions of global warming, consecutive droughts, and future climate changes requires planning and management of water resources. To achieve this goal, WEAP software was selected to simulate and model water resources in the Gwando protected area, and after simulating the geometry of the area, by defining eight scenarios, different management policies were investigated to optimize the use of water resources under climate change conditions. In this research, exponential micro-scale and production of meteorological data of the region under the influence of climate change in the future was done with the help of LARS-WG software. The results showed that with the continuation of the current conditions in the studied time horizon (twenty years), there is an unmet demand of 27.75 million cubic meters, which population growth and the continuation of geopolitical policies for the development of trade and industry will increase the intensity of tension and water demand in the region. Even the scenario of saving and managing water demand, although with a ten percent reduction in consumption, has an effect on reducing the amount of unmet demand, but it is not enough.

Even though the water shortage problem has been assigned to the gap between water demand and supply for years, evidence suggests that water scarcity in the world's water-stressed countries has been prompted by inefficient water governance. On the other hand, given that water problems are a blend of natural, social, and political factors, they are complex and interdisciplinary in nature. Such considerations undermine water management that are solely based on pure scientific or technical assessments. Hence, finding the optimal solution for such problems determines the capacity of the water governance system. Under these circumstances, the sustainable management and governance of water resources require a framework that can change our understanding of the way water resources are managed. However, the question that remains unanswered is that why after more than two decades of implementing IWRM, as the common governmental water management method in countries, there have been no remarkable changes in sectoral boundaries? The current study, with a systematic review of the evolution of water resources management in the world, explores the problems of the centralized administration of the water sector and introduces the Polycentric Governance of Water-Energy-Food Nexus (WEFN) as a new alternative. According to the results of this study, the Nexus approach, which emerged in the wake of the failure of sectoral management strategies, has attracted attention as a metaphor to describe the integrated nature of resources and as a bridge to surpass the shortcomings of sectoral thinking.

The failure and inefficiency of past water resources management policies have led to a movement to review, pathologize, and find ways to increase the efficiency of water resources management and subsequently increase water security. Since many factors affect water security, recognizing these factors can improve the performance of sustainable water resources management. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to determine the water security index (WSI) with the help of the watershed security assessment framework at the watershed scale to comprehensively analyze the water crisis and the consequences of this water shortage in the Neyshabour Plain. The statistical population of the study is 125 farmers in the area the sample size was determined using Cochran's formula and people were interviewed by random sampling method. Also, institutional factor questionnaires were completed by snowball sampling method from experts of water-related organizations. The results show that among the 5 main dimensions identified to assess water security, the water economy dimension has had an increasing trend during the 3 statistical periods studied (2012-2013, 2016-2017 and 2019-2020) and in 2019-2020, it has had the highest amount. But in general, the water security situation in the watershed of Neyshabour Plain has been decreasing over the past 10 years and is in a weak status. In this regard, if stakeholders in water resources management pay attention to the factors affecting the concept of water security, by using and implementing the framework presented in this study, it is possible to improve the compatibility capacity and develop effective operational plans with correct and timely pathology and achieve more stable and comprehensive management of water resources in the country's watersheds.

Groundwater is the single water resource in many regions of Iran. This is considered to be a major limitation in the social and economic development of the country. Destructive floods and water shortage necessitate suitable strategies against flood control. Selecting suitable areas for artificial recharge and directing the floodwater into permeable formations are amongst the most effective strategies in flood spreading projects. Having combined GIS and MCDA approaches, the present study sought to locate the most suitable areas for artificial groundwater recharge operation in the Garabaygan Basin of Iran. To this end, the data layers relating to the eight effective factors were prepared in GIS environment. This stage was followed by elimination of the exclusionary areas for artificial recharge while determining the potentially suitable ones. Having closely examined the potentially suitable areas using the PROMETHEE II-SAW and Fuzzy-AHP methods, the land suitability map for artificial groundwater recharge was produced. The results of the study showed that most suitable areas for the artificial groundwater recharge are located in Quaternary Qg and Qgsc geologic units and in geomorphological units of pediment and Alluvial fans with slopes not exceeding 3 percent. Furthermore, significant correspondence between the produced map and the control areas, where the artificial groundwater recharge projects were successfully performed, provided further evidence for the acceptable efficiency of the integrated PROMETHEE II-SAW method in comparison with Fuzzy-AHP in locating suitable artificial recharge areas.