Climate Change and the Future of Water Management in Iran

Abstract

Iran is a large country in the Middle East, which is an extremely arid region. Like its neighbors, severe droughts and population growth have intensified Iran's water shortage problems in the past two decades. Furthermore, climate change has the potential to impose additional economic and social pressure on it and all Middle Eastern countries. Thus, how future climate change will interact with socioeconomic and political conditions in the region is an important issue. In this article I discuss the influence of climate change, plans for mitigation of climate change, and projects of water resilience for the period 2010–2050 in southern Iran. I suggest ways to improve indigenous participation in crafting economic solutions to climate change, as climate change impacts directly on water resources at the local level. I also discuss how local level water solutions may affect regional and national water policy in the future.

Keywords::

• Arid regions
• climate change
• flood water spreading
• Iran
• Middle East
• water resources

Acknowledgements

I gratefully acknowledge funding for this research from the MECW project [grant number 2009-1056] at the Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Lund University.

Notes

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⁴⁹ Pandey, Gupta & Anderson (2003) Rainwater Harvesting as an Adaptation to Climate Change.