An Agent-Based Model to Improve Groundwater Resources Conditions with a Participatory Approach in the Shabestar-Sofian Plain

Regarding the supply of large amount of water demand from groundwater resources on the one hand, and increasing water level drop of the aquifers on the other hand, the importance of groundwater resources management is significantly increasing. Due to the complexities in the socio-ecological systems related to the groundwater resources, there is a need for tools to model these complexities in the form of effective agents’ relations. Agent-based modeling (ABM) is a computer simulation with a comprehensive approach of stakeholders, or agents that interact with each other and with their environment based on certain behavioral principles. In this paper, farmers, effective institutional agents and aquifer behaviors and their interactions in the Shabestar-Sofian plain is modeled using ABM with stakeholder participation through interviews and semi-structured questionnaires. The results of the implementation of five sample scenarios show that if the institutions are properly coordinated and the participation of farmers is attracted, it could be possible to reduce 202 million cubic meters of wells extraction over 10 years, in addition to increasing the income of farmers simultaneously and to compensate about 40 percent of negative groundwater balance. Using this model, a better understanding of the sophisticated system of groundwater resources management can be obtained, stakeholder participation can be attracted, and by defining scenarios in a participatory process, better solutions can be achieved in the decision-making process.