Environmental and Strategic Assessment of the Integrated Management Plan for Lake Urmia Basin

Specific and critical ecological conditions of Lake Urmia are of serious environmental problems in this region and the country, which requires special attention. Therefore in this study, by investigating the data and reports of the related organizations (during the period from 2005-2014) and extensive field surveys including direct observation, interviews, identification of the strong and weak points in the internal system together with the threats and opportunities in the external system, the integrated management plan for Lake Urmia basin was carried out. Then, in the SWOT analysis procedure, the matrices of IFE and EFE were formed and strategies were developed. The total score of 2.50 in IFE matrix represents poor condition related to the system internal factors there for appropriate planning and organizational management practices are required to deal with these factors. While the final score of 2.94 in the EFE matrix shows the good condition of external factors relative to the internal ones but it doesn’t show the desired condition. Next, the strategic guidelines, solutions and patterns for optimizing and reviewing this plan has been proposed which implementation of the results would be very helpful in taking practical steps in management of Lake Urmia.