Evaluation the consequences of transferring water from Aras River to Lake Urmia in Moghan Plain

One of the serious challenges in inter-basin water transfer projects is the environmental, economic, social and political consequences of its implementation.

The purpose of the study is to identify and prioritize the consequences of the inter-basin water transfer project of Aras River to Lake Urmia in Moghan plain using the opinions of experts and specialists related to the water basin.Therefore, in this regard, the questionnaire was used to identify the effective consequences from three perspectives: environmental, economic and socio-political, entropy and TOPSIS techniques were used to calculate their weight and prioritize.

Analysis of the findings of the study by completing 30 questionnaires received, has identified 28 consequences from environmental, economic and socio-political aspects to evaluate the inter-basin water transfer plan of the study area, which includes 16 environmental consequences. There were four economic consequences and seven socio-political consequences. The results of weighting the consequences of inter-basin water transfer projects of Aras River to Lake Urmia in Moghan plain using entropy technique showed that from the environmental point of view, the consequence of reducing available water, the economic point of view, the consequence of increasing agricultural land loss and necessity food imports and the socio-political consequence of increasing the lack of attention to social water rights have the highest weight among other consequences. Also, the results of TOPSIS method showed that the most important consequences of water transfer from Aras River to Lake Urmia in Moghan plain include environmental, socio-political and economic consequences, respectively.

it is suggested that before implementing inter-basin water transfer projects, the environmental, economic and social consequences should be examined by organizations related to the water basin to reduce the amount of future damage caused by it.