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Based on analyzing the composing elements of the water governance regime in the Hirmand River Basin, Iran, this paper examines the factors that facilitate the emergence of Adaptive Governance in a Global South context. Although the literature provides valuable insights into the characteristics of a well-established Adaptive Governance regime in the context of the Global North, relatively little research has been conducted on Adaptive Governance's fostering factors in the states in the Global South. To address this gap, this study utilizes an analytical framework upon which the features of water governance regimes are assessed. A combination of primary and secondary qualitative data (survey research and document analysis) is used to evaluate the assessment framework, which aims to analyze the characteristics that enhance resilience to the imposed changes and disturbances in complex environmental and water systems. The analysis suggests that addressing scalar and sectoral tensions, well-functioning reflecting mechanisms, adaptable policies, and flexible financial mechanisms are vital requisites for the transition towards more adaptive forms of water governance. The results also propose that the formal water governance system in the region has felt the urgency to adapt to new circumstances; however, unlike cases from the Global North, it lacks the required agility to escape from the rigidity trap it finds itself in. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change poses serious challenges for populations whose livelihoods depend principally on natural resources. Given the increases in extreme weather events projected to adversely affect the arid and semi-arid regions of Iran, adaptation of the agricultural sector is imperative. Few studies have addressed the farmers' adaptation in Iran, and little is known about ongoing adaptation strategies in use. Adopting principal component analysis/fuzzy logic-based method, this paper considers the agricultural adaptation to climate variability. A survey of 255 farmers of Fars Province, selected through a multistage stratified random sampling method, revealed different levels of adaptation, specifically the low, moderate and high, which are principally distinguished by various degrees of sensitivity and adaptive capacity. The study also identified the main adaptation strategies used by farmers in response to climate-related shocks. Results indicated that although a large percentage of farmers make some adjustments to their farming practices, there are significant differences in choice of adaptation strategies by the adaptation categories. Some conclusions and recommendations are offered to increase the adaptive capacity of farmers and reduce negative impacts of climate variability and change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Population growth and increasing demand for water have posed a significant challenge to access to safe water resources. Climate change and land use in the not-too-distant future add to the complexity of this challenge. Therefore, it is essential to achieve reliable methods for predicting changes in aquifer storage to plan for the sustainable use of groundwater resources. This study aimed to investigate the management, protection, and sustainable use of groundwater resources under climate change and land use change conditions. In this regard, groundwater supply and demand in one of the important plains in Iran (Hashtgerd plain) for 2020 as the base year was simulated to forecast the trends until 2050 by considering climate change and land use to develop management scenarios to adapt to these conditions using the WEAP model. First, climate change prediction was performed using the HadGEM2-ES model under two emission scenarios, RCP2.6, and RCP8.5, of the IPCC Fifth Assessment Report. The LARS-WG model was used to downscale the climatic data, while land use mapping was performed using Landsat satellite images of 1990, 2005, and 2020 in ENVI 5.3 software. Then, the Markov chain method implemented in TerrSet software was used to model land use change for 2050. The effect of climate change and land use on the decrease of groundwater level was then simulated using the MODFLOW model for the period 2020–2050. In order to manage the water allocation in the area, the information obtained from MODFLOW was transferred to the WEAP model using Link Kitchen interface software. The effects of various management scenarios such as increasing irrigation efficiency, reducing the loss of drinking water distribution networks, and allocating water from the transmission line were evaluated on the adaptation to climate change and land use for a 30-year period. The results showed that with the simultaneous consideration of climate change and land use in the most critical state, the average drop in groundwater level would reach 58 m during the study period, and aquifer reserves will be reduced by more than 50%. The evaluation of management scenarios showed that their implementation not only will protect aquifer reserves but, in addition to meeting 100% of the water needs, will result in sustainable exploitation of groundwater resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recognition of the spiritual and psychological needs of children and their families with chronic asthma disease may be helpful in a successful coping with their problems in order to control over the condition. In a qualitative content analysis study, nine children with moderate to severe asthma and 10 parents were studied in order to discover the resources of compatibility of them. The participants were chosen purposefully and they were asked some semi-structure questions about their experiences. The spiritual and psychological experiences of the participants were divided into two main categories as follows: (1) contrive to religious-belief consisting of three sub-categories known as 'religious rituals, believe in a divine predestination, and Islamic-based patience,' and (2) psycho-intellectual management that includes the five sub-categories of 'psycho-intellectual attention, maintaining family's mental peace, reduction in negative burden of disease, satisfaction from optimal treatment, and matching internal desires with disease conditions.' It is recommended that heath care providers by reinforcing parent's and children's religious and spiritual backgrounds and according to child's cognitive development at this age provide a suitable foreground through necessary instructions for children and their families in order to spiritual growth and suitable adaptation with disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recognizing the climate change (CC) can have vast impacts on agricultural production has generated a desire to create resilience into cropping systems. Crop management is the most important strategy to improve crop yield and resilience under CC. This study investigated the adaptation (changing planting date and crop rotation) effects on rainfed wheat yield in Iran. A fallow-wheat rotation was simulated by the DSSAT model under the Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP)-4.5 and RCP-8.5 emission scenarios, for four time periods (1994–2018, 2032s (2020–2044), 2057s (2045–2069), and 2082s (2070–2094)) and an ensemble of five GCM models within the latest model based CMIP 5 for 16 representative sites within agro-climatic zones of the country. Results revealed that the magnitude and direction of CC impact and adaptation response varied spatially even within the agro-climatic zones. Under future CC, due to higher temperature and lower precipitation, wheat yield are projected to decrease depending on emission scenarios in all sites except Qorveh, Aligudarz, and Saqez. In general, greater rainfed wheat yield reduction is highly possible during the late twenty-first century and wheat yield will be more affected by CC under RCP-8.5. In the highlands of northwest Iran, rotation carryover effects and chickpea- and annual medic-wheat rotations can modulate the rainfed wheat yield response to CC, in 2032s and 2057s periods, with greater effects from annual medic. In lowland areas, replacing fallow with crop legumes was not sufficient to avoid wheat yield losses. When planting dates were adapted, wheat yield improved across a large number of locations under all wheat-based crop rotations. In general, crop rotation can be considered as an essential component of risk reduction strategies for CC adaptation and yield resilience especially in areas where crop rotations better represent predominant cropping systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the literature on adaptation to drought has increasingly focused on investigating farmers' understanding of drought, no comprehensive study has been conducted on behavior determinants and farmers' adaptation strategies so far. To address this research gap, the current study was performed to investigate the effective factors and determinants on applying adaptation strategies by farmers in Iran. The statistical sample of the study included 430 farmers in East Azerbaijan province (located in northwest of Iran) selected through multistage sampling method. Study results after categorization of adaptation strategies (AS) first indicated that, the farmers under study suffer from a lack of high adaptation but in order to add more accuracy and grouping farmers' strategies in drought condition, exploratory factor analysis was applied in which they were categorized as self-control, active and integrated strategies. Next, structural equation modeling was adopted to study the effective factors on applying AS by farmers confronted with the drought. The results showed that, social, environmental, infrastructure, and economic factors exert a positively significant effect on selecting the AS whereas, human-related factors were proved to have an insignificant effect on adopting the AS. The results associated with structural equations indicated that, effective factors account for 93.3% of variance in application of AS which is a highly considerable rate. Indeed, these results revealed high importance of social factor, environmental factor, infrastructure factor and economic factors in applying the AS among the farmers. Therefore, our findings offered solutions as to how to reduce risks in farmers' activities during drought conditions to improve adaptation behavior of Iranian farmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change poses as one of the greatest ethical challenges of the contemporary era and which is rapidly affecting all sectors and ecosystems, including natural ecosystems and human and social environments. The impacts on human societies, and societies' ability to mitigate and adapt to these changes and to adhere to ethical principles are influenced by various factors, including gender. Therefore, this study aimed to design a model of climate change adaptation behavior among rice farmers in Mazandaran Province, northern Iran, based on gender analysis (IUCN, UNDP and GGCA in Training manual on gender and climate change, 2009) and using the developed model of protection motivation theory (Bockarjova and Steg in Glob Environ Change 28:276–288, 2014). For this purpose, 173 female and 233 male rice farmers in Mazandaran Province were selected through stratified random sampling. The results showed that threat and coping appraisal had positive and significant effects on climate change adaptation behavior in both groups. Additionally, men's and women's perceived severity had the greatest impact on threat appraisal, and response costs had the greatest impact on their coping appraisal of climate change. Given that climate change adaptation behavior has been largely dependent on the development of ethical principles and the behavior of men and women toward climate change and based on the research findings, some suggestions are recommended at the mega (international), macro (governmental and legislative), meso (related organizations) and micro (rice farmers) levels for male and female rice farmers to adapt to the climate change phenomenon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]