Integrated Water Resource Management in Isfahan

The river Zayandeh Rud is the most important surface water in central Iran. The catchment area has beenaffected by two drought periods within the last 15 years. Decreasing surface and groundwater availabilityhas been accompanied by an increase in water withdrawal for irrigation, domestic uses, industry, and watertransfers to neighbouring provinces. This has led to severe ecological and social consequences. While theIranian government is officially committed to the IWRM idea, water management decisions have still beenbased on supply-driven strategies, and supply and demand have mainly been balanced by water transferprojects.

Development of a Water Management Tool

Existing simulation models have not been used for management decisions because theirdevelopment lacked participatory elements and therefore they are considered as being biased. The aim ofthe project IWRM Isfahan is to develop a locally adapted IWRM process for the catchment area whichintegrates organisational, participative and technical measures. To this end, three different simulationmodels have been developed and merged into a Water Management Tool (WMT). WMT serves as themain instrument for a better understanding of water management processes within the catchment area andit provides the authorities in charge with a decision support tool. In order to achieve ownership andacceptance of the results and recommendations, accompanying measures like reforms in water governanceor the establishment of WMT commissions need to be realized.

The first steps in this direction havealready been taken applying participatory methods. Initial estimations show that the implemented measuresas a whole carry the potential for successful conflict resolution.