Trend assessment of the watershed health based on DPSIR framework

Jamal Mosaffaie, Amin Salehpour Jam, Mahmoud Reza Tabatabaei and Mahammad Reza Kousari

Land Use Policy, 2021, vol. 100, issue C

Abstract: In integrated watershed management, to identify efficient managerial responses, assessment of the status and dynamic of watershed health is crucial. This study focused on analyzing the main environmental problems for Gorganroud watershed health using the Driving force-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) framework. The trend of each DPSIR index was also computed using 18 quantitative indicators during the years 2004–2018. Prioritization of the watershed problems using the Friedman test ranked loss of groundwater resources, flood potential, and soil erosion rate as the most important challenges of the watershed. The results showed that except for the S index, all the other have an ascending trend during the study period. The trend slopes of D, P, S, I, and R indices were equal to 0.08, 0.05, -0.05, 0.02, and 0.04, respectively. This means the health of Gorganroud watershed becomes worse over time due to the socioeconomic activities and related pressures. Although some practical measures have been implemented as responses to balance other indices of DPSIR, however, they are neither sufficient nor integrated. The response of increasing water use efficiency has resulted in a rebound effect, causing higher consumption of water resources (Jevons Paradox). While only an integrated approach would guarantee the long-term health of watersheds, fragmented watershed governance structure has made serious challenges for the Integrated Watershed Management approach in the study area.

Keywords: Integrated watershed management; Driving force; Trend analysis; Watershed indicators; Environmental problems (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (14)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0264837719319222
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:lauspo:v:100:y:2021:i:c:s0264837719319222

DOI: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.104911

Access Statistics for this article

Land Use Policy is currently edited by Jaap Zevenbergen

More articles in Land Use Policy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Joice Jiang ().