[en] Human consumption patterns have a significant impact on the amount of available water. However, the human effect on water resources is perceived to have been poorly studied. For the effective management of water resources, social and hydrological components should be studied. To fill this gap, the aim of this study was to investigate the socio-hydrological system of the Gavshan Dam in western Iran. Therefore, the qualitative method and root cause analysis (RCA) were used to investigate the causes of the imbalance between water consumption and water resources. Root cause analysis was used to investigate the perceptions of 87 farmers and extension experts from Kermanshah province in Iran. Participants were chosen using the snowball technique and interviewed using a semistructured questionnaire. The results showed that the ineffective administrative structure was the most important and fundamental cause of water management inefficiency, accounting for 48.49% of the total inefficiency. Furthermore, the community sensitivity component (1.34%) indicated that the socio-hydrological system in the studied basin is not fully understood and that network users are not concerned about water crisis and environmental degradation. Poor yield, low income of farmers, reduction of cultivated area, social instability, and lack of secondary agricultural jobs are the main reasons for mismanagement of water resources. Conceptualizing water challenges based on the socio-hydrology revealed by this study can help designers focus on the fundamental causes, discover opportunities for policy, and implement sustainable water management strategies.
Disciplines :
Agriculture & agronomy
Author, co-author :
Javanbakht Sheikhahmad, Fatemeh; Department of Agricultural Extension and Education, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran
Rostami, Farahnaz; Department of Agricultural Extension and Education, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran
Azadi, Hossein ; Université de Liège - ULiège > TERRA Research Centre > Modélisation et développement
Veisi, Hadi ; Kirchhoff Lab, Penn State University, University Park, PA 16802, United States ; Department of Agroecology, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
Amiri, Farzad; Department of Industrial Engineering, Kermanshah University of Technology, Kermanshah, Iran
Witlox, Frank; Department of Geography, Ghent University, Ghent 9000, Belgium ; Department of Geography, University of Tartu, Tartu 51003, Estonia ; College of Civil Aviation, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, China
Language :
English
Title :
Socio-hydrological analysis: a new approach in water resources management in western Iran.
Publication date :
06 January 2025
Journal title :
Integrated Environmental Assessment and Management
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