Journal Article

Assessment of non-monetary facilities in Urmia Lake basin under PES scheme: a rehabilitation solution for the dry lake in Iran

Azadi, Hossein, Vafakhah, Mehdi, Masoomi, Saber, Tanaskovik, Vjekoslav, Ozuyar, Pinar Gökcin, Panahi, Mostafa, Daneshi, Alireza, Mobeen, Muhammad

2021

Overview

The decline in Urmia Lake basin’s water resources has resulted in a severe drought of the lake. The drought of this hyper-saline lake has put lives of 6.4 million inhabitants at risk. This study was conducted to assess the technical and economic employability of a payment for ecosystem services (PES) method as a policy tool to improve water resources management of Siminehroud river basin which is the most important tributary of Urmia Lake basin. For this purpose, the target areas were identified after the development of a land-use map for the basin. Then, by recruiting the integrated interview method and distributing 398 questionnaires, the required data were collected to assess the employability of the proposed PES method. Among various PES schemes, two methods including a) payment for shifting irrigation methods and b) payment to change cropping patterns in the frame of “Willingness to Accept” (WTA) were proposed to farmers. The results suggest that farmers highly welcomed both proposed methods. The benefit–cost ratio (BCR) for the change in irrigation system was 3.98, whereas the changes for the cropping pattern were 0.8 (for rapeseed), 0.72 (for soybean), and 1.09 (for safflower). As a result, shifting irrigation methods and changing cultivation patterns to safflower are both economically justifiable.

• Publisher: Springer Netherlands,Springer Nature B.V,Springer Science and Business Media B.V
• Subject: Agriculture & agronomie / Agriculture & agronomy / basins / Benefit–cost ratio / Carthamus tinctorius / Changes / cost benefit analysis / Cropping pattern / Cropping systems / Cultivation / Drought / Earth and Environmental Science / Ecology / Economic Geology / Economic Growth / Economics and Econometrics / Ecosystem services / ecosystems / Employability / Environment / Environmental Economics / Environmental Management / Evaluation / Farmers / Geography, Planning and Development / Iran / Irrigation / Irrigation system / Irrigation systems / issues and policy / Lake basins / lakes / Land use / Life sciences / Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law / Natural disasters / Payment for ecosystem services / Payments / Playas / Rapeseed / Recruitment / Rehabilitation / risk / Risk assessment / River basins / Saline environments / Salt lakes / Sciences du vivant / Soya beans / Soybeans / Sustainable Development / Target recognition / Urmia Lake / Water policy / Water resources / Water resources management / Water supply / watersheds / Willingness to accept