Identification and Prioritization of Effective Factors in Urmia Lake Recovery and Rehabilitation Strategies

Lake Urmia is considered to be the largest domestic lake in Iran and one of the most important and most valuable ecosystems in Iran and the world. The lake has been undergoing dramatic changes over the past four decades due to rising temperatures, high rainfall changes, and droughts in the basin, and is facing a drying crisis today. In this research, factors influencing the occurrence of drought crisis in the lake and effective strategies for reducing and preventing the destruction of this lake are presented. This study is aapplied research and its statistical population is supervisors of rural households (2130 people) and experienced experts in the field of Lake Urmia. The sample size of households were estimated to be 152 by Morgan table. Sampling method was used for collecting a sample of female households with a proportional assignment and expert sampling method in the form of a snowball. The research instrument was a questionnaire whose validity was confirmed based on previous researches and opinions of professors and experts and used to determine the reliability of the Cronbach's alpha coefficient. Data were analyzed using SPSS software. In addition to descriptive statistics, inferential statistics were used. The results of this study showed that the factors affecting the drying of Lake Urmia in terms of experts, rainfall shortage and drought with a mean of 52.6 in the first priority and high population density with an average of 2.52 in the ninth priority and in terms of households' supervisors, 7 in the first priority and cultivating water-based products with an average of 3.14 in the ninth priority. Also, planting low-water products with 15.64% in the first place and opening dams with 6.66% in the tenth place, according to experts, and transferring water to the lake with 16.66% in the first place and covering anchoring with 4.89% in the ranking Tenths of the households' supervisors were considered as ways to rehabilitate Lake Urmia.