Socio-Economic Evaluation of Watershed Plans on the Watershed Residents (Case Study: Hasanabdal Basin- Zanjan Province)

Watershed practices play an important role in managing soil and water resources. On the other hand, the technical complexities and social issues of watershed projects have made it difficult to assess them. Quantitative and qualitative of socioeconomic evaluation methods both have strengths and weaknesses. Their combination can be effective in solving project evaluation problems. This research has been conducted to investigate the social and economic effects of watershed operations and collect the beneficiarieschr('39') viewpoints about these plans in Hasan-abdal basin in Zanjan Province. The method of this research is Descriptive and Analytical. The statistical population of this study consisted of heads of rural households residing in Hassanabdal basin (N=205) and based on the Morgan Table, 162 persons were selected using the cluster random sampling. A questionnaire was used to collect field data. The X2 test in SPSS20 and BCR and NPV economic analysis were used. The most significant impacts of the project are reducing the tendency to migrate, flood control, increasing the volume of groundwater, converting the low-yield drylands to the pasture lands, increasing the agricultural and garden products and reducing the costs. Implementation of watershed management plans in this area has not been effective in improving the social capital of the village, including increasing the participation and trust, raising the level of knowledge and skills of the people, increasing the income, increasing the employment opportunities and increasing the vegetation. The useful life of the research is estimated to be around 25 years, and the discount rate of 16% with the cost-benefit analysis of the data obtained in this period is greater than 1. The net present value of 1.062 indicates the plan is economically justified.