The Role of Water Resources Management in Controlling the Quantitative and Qualitative Changes of Water Resources due to Climatic Changes in the Catchment Area of ​​Zarivar Wetland

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Department of Environmental Design, School of Environment, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

2 Faculty of Geography, University of Tehran Spatial planning, College of Farabi, Qom, Iran

3 Department of Land Management, College of Farabi, University of Tehran, Qom, Iran

Abstract

Introduction
Today, the climate change is one of the most important environmental and urban challenges. The negative effect of the climate change could be reduced through a proper management of water resources. The objectives of this research are to investigate the role of water resources management in controlling quantitative and qualitative changes of water resources due to climate change in the catchment area of Zarivar wetland. A watershed is a natural area created during a specified period of time and under a natural environmental situation which soil is saturated by surface and groundwater and includes biotic succession. This ecosystem contains the specific plants and animals adjusted to its climate conditions. The watersheds benefits include: groundwater feeding, flood water control, providing a suitable habitat for wildlife and plants and other environmental values, sand dune stabilization and preventing desertification. The research questions are as follows:
1. What is the impact of water resources management in maintaining and restoring the quality of water resources due to climate change in the catchment area of Zarivar wetland?
2. What is the impact of water resources management in maintaining and restoring the quantity of water resources due to climate change in the catchment area of Zarivar wetland?
The previous literature in this field indicated the negative impact of climate change on water resources throughout the world. They also showed an urgent need to proper and effective management of water resources to provide necessary adjustment with climate change and vulnerability reduction of such resources. There are related literatures on Zarivar Lake concerning the quantitative and qualitative change of water resources in Zarivar watershed basin indicating the lack of integrated water resource management in this region. Therefore, the quality of water resource management functioning should be assessed to discover the reason for increasing vulnerability of this basin. However there is a lack of research investigating the effectiveness rate of water resource management on restoring and maintaining the quality and quantity of water resources. Zarivar wetland with an area of 2000 acres is located in the city of Marivan, the western part of Kurdestan province. The water of Zarivar watershed is provided by spontaneous underground springs and several rivers. This wetland is internationally recognized as an important one because of its rich fauna and flora, rare species and immigrant birds. However, the excessive urban growth, human intervention and climate change are serious threats for the future of this wetland. It should be noted that because of having a dry and semi-arid climate, Iran is included in vulnerable countries in terms of climate change. So it will be a great loss to such national and international environmental treasures, if environmental issues are ignored in urban planning. According to the related studies, there is a meaningful reduction in rainfall rate and relative humidity, increase in the amount of dust, winds and temperature in watershed basin of Zarivar wetland. Hence, restoring and maintaining of the wetland is just possible through the management of its watershed basin.
The conceptual model of the present research regarding the accomplished studies is represented in figure 1.
Material and Method
The overall method applied in the present study is quantitative. The type of research on the basis of purpose is applied research and according to the nature of research is descriptive and correlational. Data collection in theoretical foundations section is carried out through library studies and by made questionnaire in field research section, partial least squares method is utilized for data analysis of questionnaire and structural equation modeling by smart PLS software. The samples of this study are consisted of 56 specialists and experts in the field of natural resources an environment as well as managers in charge of water resource section in Marivan city. For the validity determination, the questionnaire was given to a group of expert critics and some issues were corrected by them and finally the sample size calculated 49 by applying Cochran formula.
Conclusions
At the first stage, by partial least squares structural equation modeling a model of measuring was determined through reliability and validity analysis. At the second phase, the structural model assessment was carried out through path analysis and measuring coefficients between latent variables as well as the model fitting. The diagram no. 2 indicates that the effectiveness rate of water resource management on restoring and maintaining the quality and quantity of water resources are 0.401 and 0.413 respectively. So, there are moderate relationships. Water resource management is also under the influence of 4 indexes including: planning (0.796), organizing (0.904), leadership (0.840), and observation and controlling (0.760). According to the results, all 4 indexes have high impact on water resource management.
Discussion of Results
According to the investigation, there is a meaningful reduction in rainfall rate and relative humidity and temperature increase in watershed basin of Zarivar wetland so it is gradually going towards climate change. The results analysis and interpretation of structural equation modeling repsent the rate of effectiveness of water resource management on restoring and maintaining the quality and quantity of water resources of watershed basin of Zarivar alongside of climate change are 0.401 and 0.413 respectively. These numbers indicate the negative moderate relationships showing the weak function of water resource management. Despite the inappropriate situation of water resource quality and quantity of watershed basin of Zarivar, water resource management could not be effective considerably on restoring and maintaining the quality and quantity of water resources alongside the climate change. So, there is an urgent need for a proper water resource management in this basin as Shamir et, al emphasized the importance of more efforts on water resource management role and duty when there is a climate change. Therefore it is highly recommended for managing sector of the region to be correspondent with UNFCCC for improving the situation of water resource of Zarivar lake basin. It is also suggested that the formation of a coordinating council for Zarivar watershed basin would be a great help to join and coordinate different managing sections in charge of water resource of this region. In addition, accurate research and investigation is necessary to enhance the effectiveness of water resource management in this area. The constant investigation and measurement of water resource quality and quantity would be helpful as well. Another beneficial way is providing proper training programs for people to understand the importance of maintaining water resources and preventing them from being polluted and have a volunteer partnership in water resource management programs. Last but not the least some policies should be made for confronting offenders concerning the water resource issues.

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