Estimating Potential of Virtual Water in an Inter-basin Water Transfer

The importance of inter-basin water transfer project is its ability to balance the non-uniform temporal and spatial distribution of water resources and demands، especially in arid and semi-arid regions. A water transfer project can be executed if many economics and environment criteria are satisfied. In this research، a methodology is proposed for inter-basin water allocation using the virtual water concept. Thus، a model based on the virtual water estimates the benefit of the inter-basin water transfer. SWAT simulation model was applied in order to estimate the virtual water potential of the receiving basin. The water related revenues of the basins that receive transferred water and the initial basins and related virtual water are estimated. The results show efficiency and benefits based on value of water and production. The effectiveness of this methodology is examined by applying it to a large scale case study of inter-basin water transfer from the Solegan to the Rafsanjan Basin in southeastern part of Iran.