Conceptual and Analytical Framework of Agricultural Water Management Strategies using an Integrated Approach of Strategic Planning and Multi-Criteria Decision-Making Model

Sustainable water resources management in order to achieve sustainable development will be realized considering social, economic, environmental, water resource, and consumption components. Accordingly, in the present study, a new conceptual framework in the form of fuzzy strategic planning in combination with multi-criteria spatial decision-making models was proposed for the development of sustainable agricultural water management strategies. Proposed action plans based on executive policies of water supply and demand management to increase water productivity, including the development and rehabilitation of the physical structure of water resources system of Sefidrood irrigation network, improvement of operation management and maintenance of water resources system of Sefidrood irrigation network, wastewater management and water withdrawal from the internal water resources of Sefidrood system. Also, the action plans were presented spatially in the form of zoning maps at the level of irrigation zones of the Sefidrood irrigation network. Then, in order to prioritize the action plan in the irrigation zones of the Sefidrood irrigation network fuzzy multi-criteria decision model was used. The results of the model showed that the Fumanat irrigation zone with an index value of 0.151 was selected as the first priority in terms of spatial action plans. The results of sensitivity analysis showed that in five scenarios out of seven available scenarios, the Fumanat irrigation zone was ranked first in terms of implementation of supply and demand management action plan. Therefore, it can be said that considering that one of the basic principles of management is the knowledge of management priorities, this model and the results can be a good solution for the implementation of sustainable management of water resources and consumption in large-scale water resources systems.