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Development of a Water Security Conceptual Model by Combining Human-Environmental System (HES) and System Dynamic Approach

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Abstract

The water shortage crisis that is sweeping the world today has posed serious harm and threat to people around the world. Meanwhile, Iran is one of the water-scarce countries due to its location in arid and semi-arid belt and fluctuations in rainfall. The pervasive nature of water and the existence of numerous human and environmental factors affecting its reliability have greatly complicated the interactions between the human-environment dimensions. Therefore, there is a need to merge knowledge from the social and natural sciences. In this regard, this study aimed to provide a water security conceptual model in the Neishabour plain watershed by combining a framework for Human - Environmental System (HES) interactions and System Dynamic (SD) aproach in relation to the concept of water security. For this purpose, a qualitative research method consists of combined an initial conceptual model with a Causal Loop Diagram (CLD) obtained from interviews with the key research community was used to present relationships and develop a conceptual model of water security. The results show that understanding the hierarchical levels of environmental awareness and ultimately learning and practice based on key components and interactions identified by the HES framework, facilitates the analysis of system complexity. In this regard, if water resources management organization pay attention to the factors affecting the concept of water security, by using and implementing the conceptual model presented in this study, it is possible to improve the compatibility capacity and develop effective operational plans with correct and timely pathology to achieved more stable and comprehensive water resources management in the watersheds.

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Data Availability

Raw data were generated at University of Tehran. We confirm that the data, models, or methodology used in the research are proprietary, and derived data supporting the findings of this study are available from the first author on request.

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Funding

This study received no findings from any organizations.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran

    Maryam Yazdanparast, Mehdi Ghorbani & Ali Salajegheh

  2. School of Civil Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

    Reza Kerachian

Authors
  1. Maryam Yazdanparast
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  2. Mehdi Ghorbani
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  3. Ali Salajegheh
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  4. Reza Kerachian
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Contributions

Maryam Yazdanparast: Conceptualization, Methodology, Software, Writing - Original draft, Visualization. Mehdi Ghorbani: Supervision, Conceptualization, Reviewing and Editing, Validation. Ali Salajegheh: Reviewing and Editing, Validation. Reza Kerachian: Supervision, Conceptualization, Reviewing and Editing, Validation.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mehdi Ghorbani.

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Yazdanparast, M., Ghorbani, M., Salajegheh, A. et al. Development of a Water Security Conceptual Model by Combining Human-Environmental System (HES) and System Dynamic Approach. Water Resour Manage 37, 1695–1709 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-023-03449-5

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