Evaluation of Agricultural Water Poverty Index in Hamadan Province and Identification of Critical Components

Abstract

Attention to the increase in population, the limited capacity of water resources and climate change, the occurrence of drought will be inevitable. This issue has led to the sensitivity of development specialists regarding this life-giving resource and the regulation of the framework for the supply of water resources. In this regard, the multi-dimensional index in the form of five main axes, including resources, access, consumption, capacity and environment, would be beneficial for examining the effective factors contributing to the agricultural water crisis. in order to evaluate the access to agricultural water resources and investigate water scarcity at the trans-regional level. In this paper, with the aim of calculating the agricultural water poverty index, various dimensions affecting water poverty were investigated and then the critical indicators were explained in each city. Therefore, this article aims to calculate the agricultural water poverty index by examining various dimensions contributing to water poverty. Afterwards, critical indicators were explained in the studied cities to address the issue thoroughly. The research results showed that due to the weaknesses in two environmental components (high consumption of poisons and fertilizers and low water quality) and access (farmer's access to water and land potential) Kaboodarahang county has a more critical agricultural water scarcity situation of 42.06 compared to other counties. Malayer city has a more favorable situation due to better access to resources and higher scores in the environmental component from the point of view of the water poverty index, also the findings of the weak management of water resource consumption and the low human and real capacity (Farmer's ability to manage agricultural water at farm level), in the studied areas.

Keywords

• drought crisis
• access to water resources
• water poverty
• water scarcity