Analyze and Identification Components of Instability in Iranian Basins (Application of Water Poverty Index in Basin Scale)

Iran is located in a part of the Northern Hemisphere climate cycle where there is air mass subsidence; as a result, over two-thirds of this country has arid and semi-arid climate. The main challenges facing Iran water resources are the annual decline in renewable water resources, increase in the number of water pollutants, and aquifer over-exploitation, putting drainage basins in a precarious position. In keeping with this, the present paper studied the factors affecting this instability in Iran’s drainage basins in terms of water poverty. To this end, using water poverty index (WPI) of Iran’s drainage basins and the affecting factors, social, economic, and environmental data were collected for 2016. Results revealed that the average WPI in all the drainage basins is 43.73. Among the components, resources and consumption have the lowest values, i.e. 19.24 and 36.85, respectively. In terms of WPI ranking, the basins of Daranjir Desert, South-Baluchistan, Hamun-e Jaz Murian, Qara Su and Gorgan, Kal and Mehran, Bandar Abbas, and Sedij are precarious and instable, and the basins of Sefidrood, Persian Gulf (western border), lake Urmiah, and Karun lack water deficit stress and have yield stability. Therefore, the author(s) recommend that the study and examination of water resources be conducted using holistic approaches in order to establish integrated management of water resources.