Sustainability assessment of watershed management plans in Sistan and Tol Heidari watershed of Jahrom County using IUCN method

In the comprehensive and integrated watershed management approach, watershed management has progressed from a mechanical and biological program to a comprehensive and integrated management system, through which we can guarantee human needs for the present and future generations in a reasonable way. Despite the fact that there is no doubt about the effectiveness of most watershed projects, the alignment of these projects with the goals of sustainable development needs to be evaluated.

We used IUCN method to assess sustainability of the watershed management plans in Sistan and Tol Heidari watershed of Jahrom County from 2005 to 2021. The most important strength of this method is simultaneous consideration of human and ecosystem factors. For this purpose, using opinion of experts, we determined criteria and indices in two main categories including ecosystem and human welfare. Finally, we selected three criteria and 15 indices for ecosystem section and four criteria and 13 indices for human section to assess watershed sustainability condition. The sustainability assessment of the watershed was performed with and without weighting the indicators and criteria.

The final score, according to the stability barometer respectively in the first method, was 66.30 before implementation and 71.33 after implementation. In the second method, the final score of 60.64 and 66.66 which indicates an upward trend in the level of stability and increase in the state of stability.

The results of the present study show that the watershed projects carried out in the region have been able to bring about a relative improvement in the ecological and economic-social conditions of the region.