Socio-hydrological Issues Preventing Restoration of the Urmia Lake in Iran

Abstract:

In recent decades, Urmia Lake in Iran has been faced with a catastrophic drought due to increasing anthropogenic developments, especially in the agricultural sector. Respectively, it became of paramount goals of the government to restore the Urmia Lake to its former healthy condition. However, the management strategies and efforts to revive Urmia Lake have been encountered various challenges, mostly due to various of human-oriented issues. In this regard, this research explores the anthropogenic causes of the Urmia Lake drought and human-induced preventions of lake restoration through conducting interviews with the farmers of the Urmia Lake and experts from the Urmia Lake Restoration Program. To obtain a brighter insight, some of the most noteworthy problems derived from governance and social systems including lack of public participation in governmental decision-making, ethnic conflicts among Kurd and Azeri stakeholders, flaws in water governance systems, socio-economic issues, farmers’ low level of awareness, and discordances among high-level management sectors have been recognized and investigated as the socio-hydrological barriers frustrating the revival of the Urmia Lake. The results of this study indicated that there are considerable fundamental social and governance issues that may nullify the efforts made for restoring the Urmia Lake to its past healthy state. The outcomes of this research may be used by policymakers to have more comprehensive insight for enhancing current management strategies and optimize future policies considering all of the mentioned issues. Furthermore, findings of this study may provide beneficial lessons for researchers to investigate the socio-hydrological issues of various endangered watersheds around the world.