Developing an Appropriate Organizational Structure for Agricultural Water Demand Management in Iran

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• Mohsen Barahimi
• Kazem Shahverdi
• Iran Ghazi
• Naser Taleb Bidokhti

Abstract

Serious attention to agricultural water supply management is inevitable due to an increase
in demand for this most precious resource. Water demand management is a strategy that reduces the demand for, increases its use efficiency of, and prevents the waste of its resources. Various laws, pertaining to the prudent water management, have been passed; however, many of them have never been enforced. Therefore, the existing structure was investigated by polling a group of water- related experts. The questionnaire, which was employed for this research, was answered by38 eminent water experts. The calculated Cronbach's alpha coefficient of the polling was 0.701 that pointed to the strong reliability of the questionnaire. Those water experts were in agreement with reorganization of   the water resources management and maintained that a “lack of coordination among relevant agencies” and the “legal difficulties in reforming the consumption patterns” have greatly affected the emergence of the existing water crisis. Therefore, a countrywide organizational chart, consisting of five levels, was proposed: 1. Providing a framework and adapting a firm policy on logical water management in coordination with the judiciary bodies; 2. Enabling the managers of   large watersheds to adapt their own policies; 3. Enabling the managers of   sub-watersheds to adapt their own policies; 4. Implementing the confirmed policies employing the existing hardware and software and looking for the new methods; 5. Implementing the adapted policies at the local scale. We strongly recommend an assessment of this chart by the concerned water authorities

Keywords

• water demand
• questionnaire
• Reform
• Structur

20.1001.1.20086377.1396.10.34.7.7

---

References

1)                  تجریشی، م.، و ا، ابریشم چی. 1383. مدیریت تقاضای منابع آب کشور. مجموعه مقالات اولین همایش روش­های پیشگیری از اتلاف منابع ملی، تهران، ایران، صفحات 24- 39.

2)                  جعفری، ر. 1387، بررسی قابلیت داده های سنجش از دور برای تخمین تبخیر و تعرق اراضی کشاورزی، سومین کنفرانس مدیریت منابع آب، دانشگاه تبریز.

3)                  گلمحمدی، ح.، و ا. مکلف سربند. 1387. بررسی و مقایسه مقادیر محاسبه نیاز آبی سند ملی آب با سایر مراجع در استان اردبیل.  سومین کنفرانس مدیریت منابع آب ایران، دانشگاه تبریز.

4)                  محمودی ب.، سرلک، و م.  1387. برآورد عوامل مؤثر بر عرضه و تقاضای آب و جایگاه ایران در منطقه از نظر توسعه پایدار. اولین کنفرانس بین المللی بحران آب، تهران.

5)                   Barth, S. 2004. Self-organization: taking a personal approach to KM. In M. Rao (Ed.), Knowledge Management Tools and Techniques: practitioners and experts evaluate KM solutions. Butterworth-Heinemann.

6)                   Cronbach, L. 1951. Coefficient alpha and the internal structure of tests. Psychomerika 16: 297-334.

7)                   Downing, T. E., S. Moss, and C. Pahl-Wostl. 2001. Understanding climate policy using participatory agent-based social simulation. In Multi-agent-based simulation. Springer Berlin Heidelberg.198-213.

8)                   Feng-rui, L. I., U. Qi-jun, L. I.,  and Guang-di, L. I. 2008. Patterns of water resources management: Overviews and prospects. Journal of Desert Research 28: 1174-1179

9)                   Herbertson, P. W., and Tate, E. L.  2001. Tools for water use and demand management in South Africa. Secretariat of the World Meteorological Organization.

10)               International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage (ICID) 2002. Water for food and rural development.www.icid.org

11)               Likert, R. 1932. A technique for the measurement of attitudes. Archives of Psychology 140:1-55.

12)               Lü-xiang, D. E. N. G., and C. H. E. N. Song-ling. 2009. Analysis and strategy for the demand management of water resources. Journal of Water Resources and Water Engineering. 6:1-18

13)               Kindler, H. 2002. Clear and creative thinking. A crisp fifty-minute series book.Thomson.

14)               Krejcie, R. V., and  Morgan, D. W. 1970. Determining sample size for research activities. Educational & Psychological Measurement 30:607-610.