Iran-Water Resources Research

Iran-Water Resources Research

Multidimensional Analysis of the Challenges of Local Groundwater Governance System in the Hashtgerd Study Area

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
Saman Noorian 1
Hamed Ketabchi 2
Ali Bagheri 2
1 M.Sc. graduate, Department of Water Engineering and Management, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
2 Associate Professor, Department of Water Engineering and Management, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
10.22034/iwrr.2025.505815.2832
Abstract
The increasing population and limited water resources necessitate better water resources management. In many parts of the world, the establishment of an integrated water resources management (IWRM) process has been unsuccessful, and identifying issues and their solutions remains one of the main challenges of its implementation. Therefore, in recent years, addressing the challenges of water resources from the perspective of water governance has been raised. The water resources of          Hashtgerd-study-area have experienced a sharp decline over the past few decades. In recent years, the groundwater level in this study area has decreased by an average of 92 centimeters annually. The aim of this research is to identify the network of issues in the Hashtgerd study area and provide a problem theory in order to lay the basis for designing management interventions to reform the local governance system and improve the water resources situation in this area. In this regard, the issues and obstacles to achieving the expected outputs and achievements of the water governance system in this area are investigated. For this purpose, 24             semi-structured interviews were conducted using the           snowball-sampling-method. The collected data were analyzed by the method of inductive qualitative content analysis, and the conceptual model of Hashtgerd issues was explained. Some of the most important issues include land use change, lack of participation of users in water management, decrease in social capital and influence from the central government. These have created problems such as reduction in production and threats to food security, creating a sense of deprivation in farmers, reducing groundwater resources and insensitivity of landowners to the water issue.
 
Keywords
Groundwater Modeling, Groundwater Level Forecasting, Deep Learning, Convolutional Neural Network

Subjects

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  • Receive Date 10 February 2025
  • Revise Date 09 May 2025
  • Accept Date 19 May 2025