Integrated river basin planning and management: a case study of the Zayandehrud River basin, Iran

This study applies the concept of integrated water resources management (IWRM) to a river basin in Iran, and in so doing, proposes a framework for implementing IWRM principles. Issues such as stakeholder participation, sustainability in several subdomains, scenario analysis, dispute resolution, climate change and well-designed models have been considered. Through a river basin simulation model (RIBASIM) and sustainability criteria, stakeholders made decisions for improving the level of sustainability in the basin. The result of decision making for the future was tested under climate change impacts, and the outputs showed serious challenges, so a strategy is proposed for overcoming these impact effects.