Planning and prioritizing sustainable development strategy for the water resource of Songor plain using SWOT model and QSPM matrix

In the recent years, not only drought effect, but also a missed agricultural performance management system, as well as a strategic programming resulted the water crisis in more plaint of Iran. In this study, SWOT model was used, in order to develop a managing strategy for sustainable water resources development in the Songor plain. To this aim, the external and internal water resources effective factors (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) were introduced the effective strategies to improve the actual resource situation. The results showed from the internal factors: high rainfall amount (which is more than two times of the country record) and virtual water export are the strengths and weaknesses points of the study area, respectively. Based on the external factors, the opportunity and threat points are water efficiency and weak strategic crops produced, respectively. The internal and external factors investigation also showed weaknesses and threats points overcome on the strengths and opportunities points. Therefore, based on these results, water resource of the region is on the critical condition. Hence a rapid decision (with using defensive strategies) is necessary to resolve the conflicts of water crisis of the region.