Assessing Vulnerability Level of Farmers against Drought resulted from Water Crisis in the Zayandeh Rud River(Case Study: Rural Areas, South Garkan, Mobarakeh County)

The purpose of this study was to investigate the vulnerability of farmers in the southern Garkan district township facing drought conditions caused by the water crisis of Zayandehrood River. The study tried to answer two questions: 1. how vulnerable are farmers to drought caused by the Zayandehrood water crisis in economic, social and environmental dimensions in the studied villages? 2. What is the level of farmers' awareness of solutions to drought? The statistical population of the study is the farmers of the villages of the Southern Gerkan district, which in 2016 amounted to 2027 person, of which 178 cases were selected as a sample using the Cochran's formula. The validity of the research instrument was confirmed by experts and the reliability of the items with Cronbach's alpha was equal to 0.85. The required data were collected using a questionnaire and analyzed by statistical tests (Spearman correlation, Chi-square, one-sample t-test and Friedman) and hierarchical analysis technique. The results showed that increasing production costs, increasing psychological stress and falling groundwater levels were respectively as the most important economic, social and environmental damages due to the Zayandehrood water crisis in the region. According to the results of one-sample T-test and Friedman test, socio-psychological injuries have caused the most damage to farmers. A survey of farmers' awareness of drought management methods showed that knowledge of "ways to reduce water loss" is stronger than all other indicators. The results of hierarchical analysis from the perspective of experts showed that the most effective strategy to deal with drought in the region is "irrigation technical solutions".