Application of Game Theory for Groundwater Resources Management of Atrak

Atrak Basin is an agricultural area in North Khorasan province that the most farmers are using from groundwater resources for irrigation their crops. Decreasing rainfall in recent years in this area, competition between urban, agriculture and industrial consumers has increased for water acquisition. In present study, game theory was applied for groundwater resources management of Atrak Basin. Optimal extraction quantity of groundwater resources were quantified with using Pareto frontier curve and four conflict resolution methods for 6 alternative groundwater extraction scenarios. The results showed that, when environmental and economic objectives are assigned equal weight or importance, the best scenario is to extract between 64 and 117 million cubic meters each year. Ultimately, optimal decision making depends on the relative importance weights assigned to the conflicting objectives.