JWSS - Journal of Water and Soil Science

In the recent decades, dams have paradoxically been considered as a constraint and or a driving force of surface water conservation. On the other hand, dams have had a number of socio-economic and environmental impacts, the main reason for conducting the current case study on Shah-Qasem Dam in Yasouj, Iran, was to employ the survey field research through a questionnaire to assess the rural peoples’ viewpoint; this was done in four villages of the Southern Sar’roud County. Based on the (Cochran) formula, 192 individuals were relatively selected from each village. According to the findings, the most important impact of the dam was mainly economical (the average impact was between 2.37 and 3.7), whereas the least one was environmental (the average impact was between 1.81 and 3.54). Also, the results of the hypotheses’ analyses by means of 2 and Wilcoxon showed the following results: rise of the villages’ income, increase of the cultivated farms, increase in the employed individuals, enhancement of the cultivated crops, the regions production rising, improved tourism, lack of people’s participation in the decision making process, and reaming of the same plant varieties in the area, as compared with the pre-dam era. It is worth considering, however, that based on the statistical population used, this study was concerned mainly with the short benefits of the dam, rather than its long-term destructive ones.

Excessive groundwater abstraction is a major environmental and economic challenge in Iran’s arid and semi-arid regions. This study examined farmers’ perceptions of groundwater over-abstraction and its perceived socioeconomic consequences in the Siminehroud catchment. Data from 373 questionnaires were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Mann–Whitney U tests, and chi-square tests. Effect sizes were reported, and p-values were adjusted using the Benjamini–Hochberg procedure. Overall, 41.8% of respondents believed that groundwater over-abstraction was occurring in their locality. Respondents with this perception were younger (median 48.5 versus 53 years; p<0.001), and the proportion with this perception was lower among users of piped water conveyance than among users of traditional canals (24.2% versus 45.6%; p=0.001). Both associations remained significant after false-discovery-rate adjustment. The most frequently perceived consequences of groundwater-level decline were declining farm income, loss of irrigated land, changes in cropping patterns, and increased migration. The findings indicate that groundwater management in Siminehroud should incorporate aquifer monitoring, improved water conveyance, and social interventions tailored to users’ characteristics.