Study of Components Affecting Virtual Water Trade Management from the View Point of Experts

The purpose of study was to investigate components affecting the management of virtual water trade from water experts’ view point; a survey research was conducted. This research was a descriptive- corelative research based on structural equation modelling. The data collection tool was questionnaire and statistical population included water experts (N=300). Using krejcie and Morgan’s (1970) table 169 were selected using sample random sampling method. To determine the validity of questionnaire, panel of experts of the department of agricultural extension and education at tarbiat Modares University was used. Furthermore, in order to assess the reliability of the research tool, cronbach's alpha test was used. The value of cronbach's alpha coefficient was calculated. The value of cronbach's alpha for different parts of the questionnaire was between 0.70 and 0.90. Statistical tests used in this study were spearman, Pearson correlation coefficient. The results of correlation analysis showed that political component, economic, environmental, social - cultural and educational - extension had significant relationship with the dependent variable. To evaluate the Fitting Model of the latent variables and to test the research hypotheses, the structural equation modelling technique was applied through LISREL8.80 software. The results of confirmatory factor analysis confirmed the reliability and fitness of the latent variables of the research. Structural equation modelling showed that 65 percent of the changes in the distribution of Virtual water trade management were explained through external latenet variables and fitness of the model was confirmed.