Applying the System of Environmental and Economic Accounts for Water (SEEA-Water) for integrated assessment of water security in an aquifer scale - Case study: Azarshahr aquifer, Iran

As an important stage in integrated water resources management, integrated assessment adopts a set of indicators to address not only the physical water balance, but also the role of water in social welfare, economic production, and employment. The indicators should be located in an analytical framework capable of figuring out the inter-relationships among different environmental, social, and economic disciplines. Adopting the System of Environmental and Economic Accounts for Water (developed by the United Nations), this paper aims to provide an integrated assessment in the groundwater resource in the Azarshahr aquifer area in the Northwestern Iran, comparing local water security indicators in 2006 and 2016. The results show that the local water resource in the study area is highly stressed in terms of quantity and quality. In addition, the area suffers severely from unsustainability and dis-equilibrium between water resource and consumption. Using a system dynamics model developed in VENSIM PLE, the paper analyzed five different policy options, which could have been devised to improve the water security in the area. The policy option 1 (stepwise reduction in the irrigated agricultural area from 2006 to 2010 followed by a constant 2% decline from 2010 to 2016) was found more effective in controlling the water salinity. Since it is highly inelastic in terms of regional economic revenue, it could be a cost-effective policy to prevent salinization of water with low impacts on the regional revenue. The methodology can be applied for building water accounting systems in similar areas for the purpose of integrated water resources assessment and planning.