Integrated Water Resources Management of Minab Basin, Southern Iran, Using Modified Sustainability Index

The catchment area of ​​the Minab river basin and its main branches, as a part of Makren coast, southern Iran, are one of the important areas for water resources planning and management. The aim of this study was to set-up a comprehensive water resource planning and management model, involving WEAP software, for the area. The area includes the Minab, Jeghine Toukahoor, Manoojan, Roodan, Nodej, Dehkohan, Mosaferabad and Faryab Galashgerd. Two scenarios including: (RS) as the reference scenario, and a conservative agricultural development (CAS) were implemented for the future horizon of year 1410, using WEAP model. Then the outputs were evaluated using the performance criteria including; volumetric reliability, reversibility, vulnerability and stability indices. A 15-water year data (2000-2014) was used, 10 years of that for calibration purposes and the rest of 5 years data for verification. The values of evaluation indices, coefficient of determination and Nash-Sutcliff coefficient, for calibration period were equal to 0.98, 0.97 for the Esteghlal dam volume and 0.98 and 0.98 for the hydrometric stations, and 0.90 and 0.86 for the groundwater aquifers, respectively. On the other hand, for the verification period, the values of the above-mentioned indices were equal to 0.98 and 0.98 for Esteghlal dam volume, 0.78 and 0.70 for hydrometric stations, and 0.97 and 0.88 for the groundwater aquifers, respectively. The above-mentioned index values indicate that the modelling results are acceptable. Moreover, between the two considered scenarios, the scenario of conservative agricultural development, with a sustainability index of 55.47%, has a higher priority.