Water allocation under climate change in the Qezelozan-Sefidrood Watershed

The Qezelozan-Sefidrood Watershed is a transboundary watershed in Iran, shared by eight provinces. Recent development plans in the upstream provinces include several dams that are either under construction or at the study stage. Implementation of these plans will negatively impact the downstream provinces, which historically have had access to the river. The situation can be exacerbated by the expected climate change impacts on the basin. This study evaluates the possible impacts of upstream development plans and climate change on the natural flow of the Qezelozan-Sefidrood River and designs a reasonable mechanism for fair allocation of streamflow to the riparian parties. First, a watershed model is developed using the Water Evaluation And Planning System (WEAP) software. This model is run for current water allocation and various development and climate change scenarios. The results indicate that the downstream provinces have a high vulnerability to the expected climate and development changes in the basin. To reduce the potential tension, the study treats the problem as a “bankruptcy problem” and applies the Adjusted Proportional rule to fairly allocate the available resource (water) to the creditors (conflict parties).