Mapping Stakeholders and Their Relationships in the Water-Related Conflicts Between the Capital City of Tehran and the Supplying Catchments of Drinking Water

Existence of various stakeholders with different values, interests, and goals, scarcity and unbalanced water distribution, as well as increasing demands have made conflict one of the main issues of water systems. Due to the interaction of water systems with other human systems, the correct water conflicts addressing is significant. The first step in dealing with a conflict is to recognize and analyze it. Water transfer is a solution that has been adopted to deal with the problem of scarcity of drinking water in Tehran, which has led to the potential for numerous conflicts in the origin catchments. Due to the direct impact of the water conflicts on Tehran's drinking water supply, this research was conducted to analyze the potential of conflicts in Tehran's drinking water supplier catchments. In this regard, identifying and analyzing the issues, causes, and stakeholders of water conflicts and the type of relationships among stakeholders were the main objectives of this research. Water conflicts in the target basins were analyzed using the conflict mapping tool based on the Conflict and Development Analysis framework developed by the UN. The results showed that in general, the existing conflicts are in the fields of water allocation, development, and environment. The main reason for the conflicts in these basins is the adoption of alternatives such as transferring water to Tehran. As the outputs, the actors in the water conflict were recognized and the relationship among them corresponding to their alliance and/or conflict were mapped.