Identification of the Socio-Cultural and Economic Driving and Restraining Forces Influencing Public Participation in Establishing and Operation of Irrigation Canals Using Force Field Analysis (The Case of Veys County)

People participation is the most important tool for the success of economic and social development programs, especially the optimal use of water resources in rural areas. Recognizing factors influencing villagers' participation and their impacts makes it possible to plan and act to involve people more intensively in the future water conservation and restoration program as well as restrict the barriers of participation. In this regard, the present study was aimed to identify the socio-cultural and economic driving and restraining forces affecting public participation in the construction and operation of irrigation canals in Veys area. For this purpose, a survey method was used in which all Veys's Irrigation Network users were considered as the statistical population. Then, by simple random sampling, 217 users were selected. The data collection instrument was a questionnaire which was employed after confirming its validity and reliability. Data analysis was performed by SPSS and Pathmaker software based on the force field analysis to identify the driving and restraining  forces of rural participation. Results showed that the users' participation was very poor in the decision-making stage, moderate in the implementation, and high in the exploitation and evaluation phase. The results of the analysis of driving and restraining forces related to socio-cultural and economic factors revealed that in all cases, the score of the restraining forces was higher than the score of the driving forces. That is, the desire to maintain the status quo and the lack of willingness to change among the water users is stronger than their desire to make a difference. Finally, after identifying the problematic factors and their contribution in the current situation, in order to achieve a more favorable situation, some solutions were proposed to weaken the deterrent forces and/or to exacerbate the driving forces or both.