Investigating the effect of increasing cultivated area and population growth on surface water resources of Mahabad using WEAP model

جغرافیا و مخاطرات محیطی

Article 14, Volume 14, Issue 1 - Serial Number 53, March 2025

Document Type: Research Article

DOI: 10.22067/geoeh.2024.85119.1425

Authors

nezam mahmudi¹; Hirad Abghari^{* 2}

¹Student of Urmia University, Faculty of Natural Resources

²Faculty of Natural Resources, Urmia University, IRAN.

Abstract

Today, because of population growth, improvement of public health and welfare, Development of industry and growth of economic and agricultural activities, per head water consumption has greatly increased, and due to the deficiency of water and the imbalance between supply and demand, the management of water resources is very complex and important. The WEAP model evaluates the effect of changing the amount of water allocated to different consumers on the economic benefits of water consumption. This advantage is very important, especially when it is necessary to evaluate the long-term effects of changing allocation in water resources. That's why WEAP has been used in this research. The purpose of this research is to investigate the status of water resources in the Mahabad dam and the impact of increase in demand on meet the needs.In this research after collecting and completing the required information, the input file was created and the WEAP model was calibrated for a statistical period. Then Exploitation scenarios for the dam reservoir were developed and implemented, and the obtained results were evaluated. The simulated scenarios include the increase of cultivated area by 10, 20 and 30 percent and the population growth scenario. The results show that according to the reference scenario, Mahabad Dam will face a shortage of 18.8 million cubic meters and according to the scenarios S4, S3, S2, S1, it will face a shortage of 30, 41, 52 and 21 million cubic meters, respectively. The selected scenario is the reference scenario that provides better conditions for the reservoir in terms of reliability and supply of water demands and the maximum volume of water stored in the reservoir.

Keywords

Keywords: Population growth scenario; WEAP model; Water resources management; Mahabad Dam; Cultivation area

References