Effect of Energy Carriers Subsidies Reducing on Groundwater Extraction(Case study: Shabestar Plain of The Urmia Lake Basin)

Energy input is one of the main factors of extracting water from groundwater resources. Therefore, pricing policies related to energy carriers affect the cost of water extraction and it also affects the amount of water extraction. In the past years, one of the reasons that has put more pressure on groundwater resources is the inappropriate subsidy policies for energy carrier prices. Given the close relationship between energy carriers prices and the costs of groundwater extraction, in the present study, it was tried to investigate the effect of energy carriers' subsidies decreasing on the amount of groundwater consumption, cropping patterns and agricultural income using the dynamic programming model in Shabestar plain. This plain is one of the critical areas in terms of groundwater resources in Iran. The results showed that decreasing energy carriers' subsidies caused extraction reduction of water from groundwater resources. For example, a 25 and 50 percent reduction in energy carrier subsidies would reduce groundwater extraction by about 4.5 and 6.5 million cubic meters per year, respectively. Also, areas under cultivation of some high water using and low-income products decrease and cropping patterns change toward more high-income products such as onions, apples and walnuts. The results indicated that adopting appropriate energy carrier subsidy policies could be useful for improving groundwater extraction conditions.