Mehdi Rastghalam

Water Resources Demand Management, Case Study: Zayandeh-roud Basin

Rapid population growth and increasing of water demand and limitation of water resources and financial resources caused special attention to the water conservation management. This matter is very important in water resources management, especially in water scarcity conditions that occurred in the last decade in central Iran. Anyway, Zayandehroud River Basin located in west central Iran, has a high increasing of population and a lot of industrial zones and also agricultural sectors. Hence this basin has a challenge for water resources. Demand management has a key role for overcoming to this problem in this basin. In this study, we categorized all implementations for demand management in three main group of water demands; agricultural, industrial and drinking water. Then we used Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) for ranking these actions with pair wise comparisons. The results show that engineering actions have an important role for water demand management and other actions such as public education, economic issues and finally legal actions are categorized as other important actions for drinking water demand management. In agricultural water demand actions, greenhouse cultivation, promotion and education, smart soil moisture sensors, farmer management, pressurized irrigation and laser land leveling achieved the first priorities. Furthermore, in order to estimate the potential of reduction of water demand in Zayandehroud River Basin, we combined the results of similar studies and the comments of experts in each group of water demands. Total water consumption in 1385 year and estimated water demand for 1410 year are the basis of estimations. For 1385, results show the potential reduction of 294 million cubic meters in total water consumption. This value for 1410 and two different cultivated areas seems to be about 523 and 424 million cubic meters. Thus by considering the significant influence of water demand management on the required water for drinking, agriculture and industry in future, demand management could be an important solution for water deficit in Zayandehroud basin. Water demand management also could minimize the high costs of water transfer and supply management actions.