Sustainability ofWater Resources in Quchan County: Fractional Programming Approach

Water resources sustainability has the main contribution to the existence and durability of the farming systems and strongly depends on the cropping pattern practices. A comprehensive cropping pattern planning takes in to account the high level of interrelation of the environmental, economic and social aspects of farming systems. In order to assess the sustainability of water resources and determine an optimal pattern of cropping in a rural farming system, this paper introduces one ratio of “net return/water consumption” and attempts to optimize it as the sustainability indicator. To this purpose, a fractional programming procedure is considered as the main approach of the study. The results show that the amount of water used is less than the linear programming by using a fractional programming, on the other hand, the region benefit will be reduced. Regional sustainability index is equal to 281.81. So, due to the movement toward cropping pattern to suit sustainable use of water reduces profits, governmental support of farmers using this model is necessary.