Integrated Water Resources Management Based on Water Governance and Water-food-energy Nexus through System Dynamics and Social Network Analyzing Approaches

The significance of integrated water resources management (IWRM) is well known, while its practical implementation methods are yet to be recognized fully. The issue of recognizing and implementing an Integrated Water Resources Management based on Water Governance policies in Iran is assessed. The integrated water resources management policies, based on the simulation of the system dynamic model of sustainable water resources management, are applied to accomplish this task. The water-food-energy Nexus is of concern in this study. The obtained results indicate a 16% increase in irrigation efficiency, a 10% improvement in cultivation patterns, a 6% decrease in agricultural production loss, a 5% decrease in food product loss, and a 5% increase in annual agricultural performance. The structure of the power distribution network among legal water governance institutions in Iran is evaluated to assess the proper implementation of strategies through the social network analyzing approach. The capacities for developing participatory governance, including the Ministry of Agriculture Jihad's legal power expansion, strengthening the academic and knowledge-based enterprises' cooperation, and improving the private sector, stance, and NOGs' supervision at state and local levels. Applying this integrated approach to modeling this dynamic integrated system is the objective. The innovation of this study is the adoption of system approaches in decision making policies extracted from dynamic integration of WFE in the water collaborative governance to achieve cohesive water management.

Automated summary

This study assesses the recognition and implementation of Integrated Water Resources Management based on Water Governance policies in Iran. It applies the simulation of a dynamic model of sustainable water resources management to implement integrated water resources management policies. The study evaluates the power distribution network among legal water governance institutions in Iran through a social network analyzing approach to assess the proper implementation of strategies. The results indicate that implementing this integrated approach can improve irrigation efficiency, enhance agricultural production, and increase annual agricultural performance.