Designing a strategic model of water governance with a sustainable development approach in order to protect human communities and animal habitats

The water crisis is one of the most important issues for the ‎progress of our country, which will certainly cause many problems in the near ‎future. Although successive droughts and the loss of available water resources have caused this situation, issues related to governance and management of water resources have also contributed greatly to this crisis. Issues caused by the water crisis are causing great damage and problems ‎to human communities and animal habitats. Therefore, the purpose of this ‎study is to design a strategic model of water governance with a sustainable ‎development approach in order to protect human communities and animal ‎habitats. ‎In this study, Delphi method and confirmatory ‎factor analysis were used to design and validate the research model. After ‎reviewing the theoretical foundations and previous research, water resources ‎governance strategies were identified. Then, based on the identified strategies, ‎the Delphi questionnaire was designed and 15 academic and executive experts ‎were polled about the importance of strategies in water governance, which ‎finally reached a consensus among experts after 3 round trips. In order to ‎validate the research model, confirmatory factor analysis method and Smart ‎PLS software were used. ‎Based on the research findings, 11 main strategies and 45 sub-‎strategies for optimal governance of water resources were identified. Key ‎strategies include trust-building and partnership, accountability, legality, water ‎economics, legitimacy, water resources management, innovation and diversity ‎management, water management, efficiency, macro management and policy-‎making, and comprehensiveness and integration. The results of confirmatory ‎factor analysis also showed that the structure of the research model is approved ‎and among the strategies, efficiency, management and macro-policy with ‎coefficient values of 0.803 and 0.802 have the highest priority. The results showed that the use of strategic approach can ‎provide the basis for good governance of water resources and sustainable ‎development goals and protect human communities and animal habitats. Also, ‎due to the complex and multiple nature of water resources governance, macro-‎operational strategies need to be applied.