Assessment of Iran’s Water Resources Quality (2004-2014)

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Water and Environment, Shahid Abbaspour College, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran. Email: a_moridi@sbu.ac.ir

2 Professor, School of Civil Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.

3 Associated Professor, Department of Mathematics, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

Evaluating the past trends and existing predictions about the quality of water resources in Iran illustrate a gloomy condition in near future. Spatial distributions of population and pollution loads are uneven in Iran, and hence there is much more pressure on quality of water resources in regions with high population and economic activities. Also, climate change and periodic droughts can worsen the current water quality condition. In this paper, considering limited available data, potential pollution loads of surface and groundwater resources in main basins in Iran are estimated for some water quality indicators such as Nitrate, Phosphorus and Biochemical Oxygen Demand (BOD). To develop a conceptual model for assessing quality of water resources in Iran, a Driving Force-Pressure-State-Impact-Response framework is utilized. By evaluating different components of this framework, the main driving forces and pressures on water quality state of Iran are determined and the main responses for managing the current situation are discussed.

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References

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Iran-Water Resources Research
Volume 12, Issue 4 - Serial Number 38
Special Issue on the 6th National Conference on Water Resources Management
February 2017
Pages 23-35

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History

  • Receive Date: 15 October 2016
  • Revise Date: 03 January 2017
  • Accept Date: 03 January 2017

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