delphi technique

Irrigation network is a set of hydraulic channels and related structures that is created with the aim of transferring, distributing and delivering water fairly as well as efficiently. However, due to constraints resulting from type of management and maintenance, climate changes, social and cultural characteristics of users, and financial issues, their performance are usually faced with major challenges. Qazvin irrigation network is one of the modern networks in the country and after more than 40 years of implementation of this network, many problems and challenges in the field of agricultural water management are observed in this network. The purpose of the present research is to identify the important challenges in the field of agricultural water management in Qazvin plain irrigation network, to investigate the importance of challenges and performance in relation to the challenges, and finally to provide practical strategies to improve the state of the system with a new approach by using Importance-Performance Analysis technique. The method of conducting the study to identify the challenges has been library studies and then using Delphi technique. Furthermore, the importance of the challenges has been identified by using Best-Worst method. Evaluating the responce of the officials authorities  to the challenges using Importance-Performance Analysis technique, demonstrates that the challenges of lack of enough motivation in farmers to reduce agriculture water consumption, lack of governmental supports for established organizations, lack of supervision on implementation of crop patterns and cultivation area, budget issues, and lack of sufficient training for farmers, in ordre are five challenges in the first quadrant of the importance-performance matrix that should be prioritized for improvement. Several practical solutions to solve the challenges for Qazvin plain irrigation network such as doing more support from government in terms of using suitable irrigation methoed while considering the approved crop pattern and providing clear information for the statue of current situation and making coordination among all types of involved sectors are presented in the results section.

Water is one of the important factors in agricultural sector and as the crucial factor of development and sustainability in agriculture, but nowadays water is limiter factor in this sector. Since the agricultural sector is the largest consumer of water, managing and increasing water efficiency is the most effective way to use the available water resources in this sector optimally. The purpose of this study was to investigate the various challenges and requirements in water management in Mazandaran province. The data of this qualitative study were collected using Delphi technique to reach group consensus. The population of the study consisted of 23 specialists in irrigation of agricultural. The study was conducted in three phases that finally presented 29 challenges and 24 requirements by experts. After eliminating the items with less than 80% agreement, there were 17 challenges and 17 requirements. The most important challenges included not choosing a suitable cropping pattern for each region and not using modern irrigation systems and most important requirements. These included were the use of agricultural mechanization and modern methods of irrigation and the role of agriculture education and extension.

Decreases of the qulity of ground waters is due to wasteful harvest of this water resource, which needs to identify the suitable places for ground water extraction for drink pourposes. The aim of current research was to identify the suitable places for ground water extraction in Roshtkhar plain using the Delphi and Topsis methods. In Delphi method the weight of criterias and sub- criterias, and multiplied in their raster layers and therefore the final map was extracted. In Topsis method by using decision-making matrix, the sub inderces were specified and then by ranking the selected sub-criterias carried out. Criterias included water, catchment physiography, geology, economic and social criterion, and sub-criterias included the quality and quantity of water, transmission coefficient, alluvium thickness, distance from the road, distance from power transmission lines, distance from the city and villages, slope of basin and geological formations of the region. The result of comparison of two methods showed that there is no meaningful different in result in the present areas, because the calculated Chi-Square ( 12χ2"> ) was 97.5 which is lower than the Chi of table. So by taking attention to the final map of Roshtkhar plain aquifer, the aptitude of aquifer was classified in five classes included very good, good, average, weak and non-suitable. In Delphi method, the 37.07 percent of area was very good and good, and in Topsis method the 35.27 percent of area which placed in the west of plain were good and very good and in the weast of aquifer has non-suitable extraction situation.