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Water and water management are no longer related to environmental studies. There is a very strong link between water and a state's security, as well as its survival and development. A decline in water availability may lead to a collapse or even the extinction of a whole civilization. Sometimes referred to as a "water‐bankrupt" state, Iran is a case that underlines the close relation between water and security, from the perspective of survival and opportunities for development. Without a doubt, the Islamic Republic of Iran is among those countries that are the most affected by climate change and low water levels. The main goal of this paper is to analyze challenges related to water in Iran, including the political, security, economic, and social dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the adverse impacts of severe droughts on various aspects of human life and ecosystem services (ESs), the spatio-temporal assessment of the resilience of ESs under droughts is essential. In this paper, we propose a new methodology for assessing ESs-based resilience, taking into account the seven resilience principles: a) redundancy and diversity, b) managing connectivity, c) managing slow variables and their feedback, d) complex adaptive system (CAS) thinking, e) experimentation and learning, f) broadening participation, and g) polycentric governance. These principles enable us to consider the main social, political, hydrological, economic, and environmental aspects concerning resilience which have been overlooked in previous studies. The methodology is evaluated by applying it to Zarrinehroud River Basin (ZRB) in north-western Iran. A set of qualitative and quantitative criteria and their sub-criteria are proposed for quantifying the ES-based resilience and generating time series of resilience against severe droughts in several sub-basins in the study area. To evaluate the criteria and sub-criteria, the required data are derived from calibrated SWAT and MODSIM models as well as experts' judjments. The time series of ES-based resilience under 128 Water and Environmental Resources Management (WERM) scenarios (for enhancing agricultural practices, altering and modernizing irrigation methods, improving irrigation network and drainage facilities) and Climate Change (CC) scenarios (RCP 4.5, RCP6.0, and RCP 8.5) are derived for each sub-basin based on short-term (2020–2049) and long-term (2020–2098) periods. The low resilience values (0.53–0.6) of all sub-basins under the base management scenario (the status quo scenario (SC 0)) illustrate the need for implementing some projects to enhance the ESs in the study area. The results show that the WERM scenario SC 12346 can improve the values of the resilience criterion in sub-basins up to 0.85 and reduce the vulnerability of the study area to droughts. By evaluating all management scenarios, scenario SC 12346 is reported as the best scenario, since it can significantly increase the resilience of all sub-basins against extreme droughts with an acceptable cost of 636 million US dollars compared to other scenarios. Under this WERM scenario, the resilience values of sub-basins increase up to 40%. This scenario suggests implementing a set of projects such as improving irrigation networks and drainage facilities. [Display omitted] • A new methodology is proposed to assess basin-wide spatio-temporal resilience. • 128 scenarios are evaluated using a novel two-point evidential reasoning approach. • The best management scenario enhances the resilience value from 0.53 up to 0.85. • The selected scenario suggests improving irrigation networks and drainage facilities. • The seven resilience principles decrease the width of uncertainty band by 0.44%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Groundwater irrigation consumes considerable energy as well as water resources across the globe. Using a case study from Iran, this paper explores how enhanced farm water management can help in reducing groundwater exploitation and subsequently limiting energy consumption and the carbon footprint of the groundwater economy. Groundwater use for irrigated agriculture in Iran has increased vastly over the last three decades. We estimate that groundwater pumping consumes 20.5billionkWh electricity and 2 billion liters of diesel and contributes to 3.6% of the total carbon emission of the country. Thus there is an opportunity to reduce energy use and carbon emissions by pumping less water. However, groundwater use remains important for food security. To identify opportunities for water conservation within agricultural fields, the SWAP model was applied to simulate crop growth and field water balance for three major irrigated crops, i.e. wheat, maize, and sugar beet in the Gamasiab River Basin, one of the highest groundwater using irrigated areas of Iran. The model simulations showed that by adopting improved irrigation schedules and improving farm application efficiencies, water productivity will increase, and irrigation water withdrawals from groundwater can be reduced significantly with no reduction in yields. While these improvements may or may not result in water saving and retarding the ground water decline, depending on the fate of excess application, they will have significant water quality, energy, and carbon implications. Such reduction in irrigation application can result in 40% decline in energy consumption and subsequently carbon emission of groundwater use. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This paper introduces a new methodology for quantifying the total resilience of water resources management scenarios. The climate change impacts on water supply and demand have been investigated using a calibrated soil and water assessment tool (SWAT) and a MODSIM water allocation model. Several criteria have been defined to measure five aspects of water resources systems resilience. The first aspect defines resilience as system strength against crossing a performance threshold (reliability). In the second aspect, if the system crosses the performance threshold, the recovery rate of the system after a disturbance is evaluated. The violation from the performance threshold has been measured as the third aspect (vulnerability), which considers the failure's severity. The fourth aspect is the resilience under extreme events with unknown occurrence probability, which includes four sub-criteria, namely rapidity, robustness, resourcefulness, and redundancy (4 R). Finally, the fifth criterion considers the ecological condition of the system (ecological index). To compare water resources management scenarios (alternatives), an analytical evidential reasoning-based (ER) approach has been used. To show the applicability of the proposed methodology, it has been applied to the Zarrinehrud river basin, which is the leading water supplier of Lake Urmia in Iran. As one of the largest saline lakes globally, this lake has been suffering from drastic desertification and salinization in the past two decades. The grade-based results of the performance criteria are synthesized into a grade-based total resilience criterion to facilitate the comparison of water resources management scenarios. It is shown that a scenario which results in 40% reduction in agricultural water demand until 2023 has the highest resilience and an acceptable construction and operational cost. • A total resilience criterion is proposed for assessing water resources systems. • This criterion can evaluate the resilience against events with known and unknown probability. • The grade-based values of performance criteria are estimated and combined using ER. • The previous resilience evaluations /have underestimated the critical conditions. • The total cost and resilience of the selected scenario are 1272.5 × 106 $ and 0.85. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]