Determining the Best Strategies for Allocating Water Resources in Darband Samalghan Watershed

Iran is located in arid and semi-arid areas of the world and the major factor in this region is water shortage. The intensive use of groundwater resources has often affected ground water levels in many parts of the world. This research was carried out with the aim of determining the appropriate management strategies for the optimal use of water resources in the Darband Samalghan watershed with the SWOT approach.

In order to carry out this research, several stages have been implemented, which include collecting information and data from the study area, as well as collecting all the strengths and weaknesses, opportunities and threats of the area, from the perspective of a group including experts and specialists in water resources to make a decision about the strategies. In the next stage, they were informed about the conditions of the region and the purpose of this study, and then scoring of internal factors (strengths and weaknesses) and external factors (opportunities and threats) was obtained. And by examining the factors with the current situation and choosing the best strategic group among SO, WO, ST and WT strategies, the SWOT matrix was formed and the most important management strategies compatible with the region were presented.

To determine the management strategies of water resources in Darband Samalghan watershed, the average of all SWOT tables was calculated. The sum of the scores obtained from the evaluation matrix of internal and external factors were 1.838 Strengths, 2.276 weaknesses, 1.908 opportunities, and 2.572 threats respectively, and as a result, the weaknesses outweigh the strengths. They prevail and also the threats are ahead compared to the opportunities. WT strategy, from the point of view of the experts present in the brainstorming session, had the most establishments among other strategies, and the strategies of this study area were close to defensive strategies. This strategy aims to minimize losses caused by threats and weaknesses.

Conclusions and suggestion:

After determining the parameters of weakness, strength, opportunity, and threat, finally the defensive strategy was determined as the best management strategy in Darband Samalghan area. According to the results obtained from this research, based on the opportunities and strengths in the region, it is possible to propose solutions that neutralize the threats and weaknesses in order to achieve the balance of the region's aquifer. If we lose time and the main factor of opportunity, the situation in the not so distant future will become much more critical than the current situation.