The effect of water crisis on the destruction of the foundations of life; Case study: land subsidence in Isfahan province

Iran is geographically located in the dry belt of the earth and this has led to a natural shortage of water. Isfahan province in the center of the country with a long-term average annual rainfall of about 150 mm is also severely limited water resources. Regardless of this, for about half a century, due to various reasons, water consumption in this province, which is mainly due to the establishment of large national industries and their chains, as well as agricultural development and population growth and urbanization, water consumption has increased greatly and lack the appropriateness of water resources and consumption has increased over time. Out of 35 plains of the province, 27 plains are forbidden or critically forbidden. Since no effective practical action has been taken to control this situation, various consumers have tried to compensate part of this mismatch by digging deep and semi-deep wells, both legally and illegally, using underground resources. The lack of replacement of groundwater aquifers and the continuous decline of their water level have caused the phenomenon of subsidence and their permanent destruction, so that even if there are sufficient water resources, these aquifers are no longer able to hold water. This causes the destruction of the most important foundation of the life in subsidence areas, which is the water sources, to be lost forever, which has many environmental, human and political consequences. Currently, subsidence threatens many parts of the province's infrastructure, such as national communication infrastructure such as Shahreza Road near Mahyar, Meshkat Road near Kashan, Bandar Abbas-Tehran Railway near Zavareh, Isfahan-Shiraz Railway near Mahyar and Marvdasht. Isfahan airport as well as other industrial, religious and historical infrastructures such as industrial towns of the province (Jafarabad industrial town of Kashan, Aran and Bidgol); Religious and tourist places (Imamzadeh Agha Ali Abbas, Naqsh Jahan Complex, and historical stairs of the province); Public places Naghsh 11 bsidence is spreading in almost all areas of Isfahan province, which threatens the survival of the province in various dimensions and it is necessary to think of serious practical measures in this area.