IRAN-WATER RESOURCES RESEARCH
Year:2021 | Volume:17 | Issue:3|Papers Count:23

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the quality of the Hablehroud river in Semnan based on the Iran Water Quality Index for Surface Water Resources-Conventional Parameters (IRWQISC). Eleven parameters of COD, BOD5, dissolved oxygen, electrical conductivity, Fecal coliform, ammonium, nitrate, phosphate, turbidity, total hardness, and pH were monitored during four seasons from winter 2020 to autumn 2020 in three sampling stations; upstream of Bonkooh village (A), downstream of the village (B) and Deh Sarab (C). The highest value of IRWQISC was 55. 6 in Station A in summer and the lowest value was 40. 4 in Station B in winter. The water quality of the river in Station A in summer was therefore better than the other stations and other seasons. To investigate the effect of each parameter on the water quality index and also to investigate the interaction of the above-mentioned parameters, the experiment was designed in the three studied stations in summer by using the Design Expert software. First, the parameters that had a greater effect on the IRWQISC value were screened by the Plackett-Burman method and then the RSMBBD method was used to analyze the data. The parameters of EC, phosphate, nitrate, turbidity, and pH had the largest contribution in the IRWQISC with respective values of 51. 61%, 23. 13%, 14. 44%, 3. 17%, and 2. 38%. The coefficient of determination (R2) using the BBD method was 0. 9982 which indicates that the model is valid.

One of the important issues in the management of municipal wastewater collection systems is how they deal with rainy conditions where the network discharge suddenly increases at certain intervals. The occurrence of such condition can cause damage to the network, reduce its performance and discharge sewage to the subsurface. In many urban wastewater collection networks sewage would be discharged to the main urban stormwater canals to overcome the situation which significantly reduce the quality of flow in those canals. In this study, the quality in stormwater collection network is modeled in the west watershed of Tehran in dry and rainy conditions. The SWMM software is used to simulate the quality of waterways. Qualitative modeling is performed for BOD, TDS, and TC variables for two scenarios of rainy and dry conditions. Due to the critical condition of DO in dry conditions, the maximum allowable load discharged to the urban stormwater collection network is determined so that the DO level remains at the standard level. This is important to prevent anaerobic condition which causes unpleasant odors. The results showed that in rainy conditions, TDS and BOD increased significantly and over the irrigation water standards. This is critical since the output of storm water network is being used for irrigation in the south western plains. It was also concluded that by reducing BOD to 50 mg/L, the DO status can be improved to avoid anaerobic conditions.

The results of comprehensive and extensive studies of countries and related international organizations indicate that inefficient and disproportionate laws with the existing challenges and lack of foresight with a sustainable view of the natural resources, are the most important obstacles to moving towards good governance. In such cases, legal reform provides an opportunity to improve the situation. Accordingly, in recent decades, many countries with different levels of development and various issues in the field of water, while reviewing the old laws or formulating new laws based on the principles and values of good governance in the context of democracy and with the aim of achieving sustainable development Have tried to better manage their internal or shared water resources in order to prevent the transformation of existing challenges into future tensions. Meanwhile, the comparative-historical evaluation of the Law of Fair Distribution of Water approved in 1982 as the law governing the country's water management system and the forty-fifth principle of the Constitution, which was the reference for its regulation, shows that the consolidation of state ownership and economy on this principle and that law, Based on the laws and ideas of socialist systems, has a quiddity conflict with the fundamental values of democracy and is one of the legal obstacles to move in the direction of governance and effective management of the country's water resources. The results of the present article shows that with the implementation of the law of Fair Distribution of Water, sustainable development in this area is not conceivable and it is necessary to adopt a new law based on the principles of good governance.

The increase in population and the expansion of agricultural and industrial water needs in Tehran-Karaj region has created a complex system of resources extraction and supply that necessitates the need to manage the water resources in this region. The purpose of this study is to analyze the water resources management in the current and future situations, the effect of wastewater allocation on supplying demands, and also to provide strategies for consumption reduction and management. These objectives are investigated in five different scenarios. For Groundwater simulation MODFLOW model is used and WEAP model is employed for water resources planning. In all scenarios, the first priority is given to the drinking and industrial demands which are supplied above 99% in all scenarios. The results showed that considering the implementation of future projects and increasing demands, the sustainability of resources was reduced in the last years of simulation which indicated a shortage of water resources against demands. According to the results, if no wastewater is allocated, the annual agricultural demand should be reduced by 40%, in order to keep the water shortage below 10%. If wastewater is allocated along with a 30% reduction in agricultural demand, the percentage of supply would exceed 90% and the water resources of the basin are in better condition in terms of sustainability and vulnerability.

In recent decades, a growing concern has emerged about the effectiveness of flood control programs due to accelerated rate of damages and casualties worldwide. The present paper aimed to investigate the issue of floods from the perspective of governance and its associated challenges and to come up with insights to enhance the flood risk governance in Iran. It is evident that the flood damages will not be reduced merely by structural practices. Thus, the paper seeked to answer the question that how the flood damages and casualties can be reduced in the country. Adopting a qualitative content analysis of the institutional documents and the reports and information associated to the national inquiry committee of 2019 Floods in Iran, this paper assessed the flood risk governance in Iran by analyzing the three dimensions of policy arrangement, including rules, actors and their associated resources, and discourses through five flood risk strategies including prevention, defense, mitigation, preparation, and recovery. The results showed that the flood risk governance in Iran suffers from critical challenges such as ignoring the river bodies in urban planning and designing infrastructures, lack of appropriate institutional responses, interference of different management approaches during the crisis situation, low efficiency in utilizing the available resources, and insisting in managing governmentally to control the flood, It was shown that diversity, unity and integrity are limited in the programs and actions associated with the flood risk management strategies. Furthermore, it was observed that among the five strategies of flood risk management, the defense and preparation strategies are more embodied in the national flood management plans.

The Aras transboundary river has experienced a significant decreasing trend in inflow to the Aras Dam in recent years. In order to find out the cause, trend of changes in meteorological variables was evaluated. Working on a cross-border study area and lack of access to observational data, forced the use of TRMM3B43V7 and PERSIANN_CDR satellite products and CRU climate database as alternative data sources. Evaluation of precipitation products based on statistical criteria showed that the TRMM3B43V7 with R of 0. 87 and 0. 74 and RMSE of 65. 64 and 84. 56 mm and also, the BIAS values of 6. 75% and 18. 6%, respectively at the Kars and Mako stations had the best performance. Also, CRU climate database with high R and low RMSE and only 3. 7% low estimate had acceptable results in temperature estimation in the study area. In order to investigate the trend of precipitation and temperature changes, nonparametric Mann-Kendall and Sense slope tests were used. The results showed that the trend of changes in precipitation on annual scale, except in the central parts of the basin, has been increasing. This change is more on seasonal scale, so that in the spring there was a downward trend and in the fall a reinforcer. Temperature also shows an uniform upward trend throughout the study area. According to the research, it is shown that climatic factors are not sufficient to justify the reduction of the inflow to the Aras Dam and the evaluation of human factors along with the effect of snowmelt is also necessary which is on the agenda of continuation to this study.

Pressure management is an efficient and inexpensive way to reduce leakage in water distribution networks, which is usually possible by systematical operation of valves, pumps, reservoirs, and tanks. In water distribution networks, there are many valves only used during the repairs in the time of accidents. In this paper, a simple approach is proposed for managing pressure and leakage in networks with optimal scheduling of the existing valves’ operation. For this purpose, the optimal locations of the valves are determined by using the valve selection index and their opening rate has been optimized in the minimum, medium and maximum consumption conditions. The optimization was done by combining particle swarm and ant colony optimization algorithm and EPANET simulator within the framework of MATLAB. The proposed method is performed both on a sample and the real network. The results show that there is a significant improvement in the performance of both networks in the average and maximum consumption conditions, so that, the reliability of the Maragheh city network is improved by 22 and 24 percent and leakage by 31 and 20 percent, respectively, compared to the base model. In general, using this approach can improve the performance of real networks by manual programming of a number of selected valves.

Due to the frequency of drought in Iran and acceleration of its impacts during the last decades, Iranian legislator has enacted some laws to control the droughts. However, this kind of legislative approach to the management of drought faces some challenges that hinder establishment of a determinant and constructive legal order in this field. Introducing five elements of a suitable model for legislation in drought management, the article found out that firstly the drought has not yet been problematized as a legal matter for the country’ s legal system and the current laws regarding the drought have addressed it in a deficient and haphazard manner. Secondly the current body of laws have not provided appropriate legal mechanisms for prevention, mitigation, adaptation, institutionalization and empowerment, and compensation of drought which makes the country vulnerable to future droughts. To overcome these challenges some legal reforms are needed. One of the necessary steps is enactment of a comprehensive law on drought management to address these deficits and also integration of drought management into the related laws like the development plan laws to achieve a comprehensive and collaborated legal order in management of this natural disaster.

Urmia Lake has faced a water shortage crisis and a sharp decline in water level due to decreasing precipitation and increasing water consumption in the agricultural sector. This study aims to develop a hydrological model to simulate the daily inflow of Bukan reservoir and simulate the water balance components for the upstream sub-basins of this reservoir through a new approach. In this study, two separate storages are considered for daily simulation of snow and root zone soil moisture, and multi-objective calibration (MOPSO) is applied to simultaneously maximize the simulation accuracy of observed river discharge and logarithm of river discharge. The results showed a relatively little trade-off between maximizing the two objective functions to estimate the optimal value of the calibration parameters. In other words, there is no significant error in the model that simultaneously prevents improving both objective functions. Results showed that the average Nash-Sutcliffe criterion for simulation of river discharge and the logarithm of river discharge were respectively 0. 43 and 0. 63 in the calibration and 0. 54 and 0. 57 in the validation step. Water balance modeling indicated that precipitation and inflow to the reservoir were decreased respectively by 32% and 40% in severe drought years and soil moisture and snow accumulation were reduced by 32% and 158%, respectively, compared to the long-term period. The developed model can predict the effects of climate change and climate variability on Bukan reservoir inflow and optimally allocate reservoir water to satisfy water demand.

In this research, the impact of climate change on the snow and ice covering of Alamkuh glacier in Mazandaran province was assessed using LANDSAT-7, LANDSAT-8 satellite images as well as the regression trends of historical data of precipitation and temperature in the last two decades (2000-2020) as well as projection of GCM models with CMIP5 scenarios over the next two decades (2020-2040). Projected data were evaluated using GCM models including EC-EARTH, GFDL-CM3, HadGEM2-ES, MIRO-C5 and MPI-ESM-MR for the period of 2020-to 2040. The observation data were used with 35-year period (1984-2014) and LARS-WG-6 was used for GCM models downscaling. The least error method (including RMSE and R2) was used to find the model in which the predicted data best fit the historical period data; the MIRO-C5 model had the lowest error among the 5 models. The results obtained for the last twenty years showed a gradual decrease in the surface of the snow and ice of Alamkuh region, especially in the summer, demonstrating the gradual decline of this glacier. Complete melting of the glacier in summer poses a serious threat to the downstream water resources of the area and the environment around the glacier.

In recent years, inter-basin water transfer projects are one of the measures taken into consideration for the problem of water shortage in some parts of the country. Providing the required water resources for the downstream areas using such projects can affect the economy of the destination basin. In this study, the economic and social impacts on the destination basin are evaluated for the water supply project conveying water from Shahroud River to Qazvin plain. To achieve this goal, first using the cost-benefit ratio (CBR) method, the project was evaluated in terms of economical and financial profitability. Then, using the positive mathematical programming (PMP) method, the effects and consequences of this plan in the destination basin were analyzed. Data and information required for this study are related to crop years 2016-2017. The proposed planning model was solved in GAMS software. The results showed that the transfer of water from Shahrood river to Qazvin plain is economicaly feasible for discount rates of 5 to 20 percent. The economic value of each cubic meter of irrigation water is estimated as 3720 rials. The results of the economic model showed that after implementation of the water supply plan, the area under cultivation for profitable products such as sugar beet, tomatoes, corn, and alfalfa is increased and cultivated area of irrigated wheat, irrigated barley and canola is reduced. Also the total farmers’ gross profit increases is estimated as 6. 34 to 11. 5 percent after the implementation of the water transfer plan. Finally, considering the positive effects of implementing the water supply project, irrigation water pricing reform is recommended to the authorities and institutions in charge and development and continuation of cultivation of profitable products is recommended to farmers.

The role of social components on socio-hydrological water interactions is one of the key elements and essential requirements for study and understanding complex water systems. Different cultural characteristics and diversity of identities in human societies have led to the development of diverse attitudes and values for dealing with water problems. Despite the considerable importance of the role of social identity on water interactions including conflict and cooperation, this issue has been seriously neglected in conflict management in water systems. This research gap has led to the hypothesis of the present study which states that there is a direct, mutual and dynamic relationship between social identity and the formation of water conflicts. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the role of social identity on water conflicts over shared and transboundary river basins. For this purpose, a systematic review of relevant resources in various databases was conducted. According to the results, conflict is an inherent and intrinsic characteristic in water systems. Besides, the social identity and destructive / constructive water conflicts are in a mutual and complex relationship. The polarized of social identities in a river basin will exacerbate the potential of water conflict. However, the effort to create a collective identity can lead to cooperation among stakeholders as well as effective dealing with water conflicts in shared and transboundary river basins.

Nowadays, the water sacristy has become one of the serious concerns of human society, so that technical and engineering solutions alone cannot solve this problem and attention to its non-technical aspects has become an undeniable necessity. Therefore, this study attempts to investigate the role of accountants in the increase in water productivity by using structural equation modeling and through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis approach. The present study is practical in nature and is considered as a descriptiveexploratory correlation study. The required data were collected through the distribution of questionnaires among 168 accountants working in the west of the country. The time period of this study is the second and third seasons of year 2021. According to the research findings accountants can play a role in the process of water productivity management through the three components of economic pricing, water reporting and reputation costs. Based on the second-order confirmatory factor analysis, the factor loading of the three mentioned components on the main structure (accountants role in water productivity increase) are: water costs/economic pricing (0. 74), water reporting (0. 69) and reputation costs (0. 62). Finally, research findings also showed that the demographic variable of length of service affects all three components and the gender variable affects only the economic pricing component. Other demographic variables (age, education and type of company) do not have a significant effect on the three main components.

Due to global warming and the occurrence of climate change and its effect on meteorological variables, especially rainfall, which is a key parameter in urban infrastructure design and water resources management, studies in this area are very important. It is now possible to predict future rainfall using the output of climate change models; this is however accompanied by many problems including lack of easy access, being large scale and the need for spatial and temporal micro scaling, increasing error, and imposing risk to urban flood management structures. Therefore, the application of a weather generator model with the ability of climatic models in simulating future precipitation using observational and recorded data has been considered in this research. In the present study, the nonparametric K-NN WG model was used which produces data outside the observational range by using two mechanisms of shuffling and perturbing. In this model, observational shortterm precipitation data of Mehrabad station with a time duration of 10 minutes to 3 hours were used to predict shortterm precipitation in the future. The results were compared with the output of the PRECIS regional climate model for the years 2070-2100 under emission scenarios A2 and B2. The results showed an increase in the intensity of future precipitation compared to the present time and moreover proved the capability of the WG model used in the study compared to the output of the PRECIS regional model. These results were evaluated using appropriate statistical tests.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has proposed the FAO 56 Penman-Monteith model as a standard method for estimating reference evapotranspiration (ETo). However, using this model for the high-altitude regions mostly faces uncertainty due to the lack of meteorological stations, observation problems, and incomplete meteorological data. Therefore, in these regions models should be used that require fewer meteorological variables and can also be considered as a function of altitude. In the present study, the data from 28 synoptic stations in Iran with an altitude of more than 2000 meters above sea level in the period of 1989-2019 were used to modify the Hargreaves-Samani model based on the altitude and also correct the temperature factor coefficients. The comparison of the results of the FAO 56 Penman-Monteith model as a standard method, the original Hargreaves-Samani, and the modified Hargreaves-Samani models showed that the modified model offers better results than the original model and is able to estimate the ETo more accurately in the highaltitude regions of Iran. Based on the results of MBE, MAE, RMSE, PVC, LVC, d, r, and PI statistical indices, the highest agreement in estimating ETo with modified Hargreaves-Samani and FAO 56 Penman-Monteith models was observed at Firuzkuh, Baft, Baladeh, Sisakht, Avaj, Khansar, Abali, Daran, Fereidunshahr, Borujen, Samirom, Aligudarz, Farokhshahr, Damavand, Sepidan and Saman stations, which had an average error reduction of 14% compared to the values obtained from the original Hargreaves-Samani model.

For a long time, the Sistan Plain has been one of the important areas for men’ s settlement due to abundant of water resources. However, this relation between water resources and settlements has not been comprehensively studied so far. Hence, the present survey aims to study the reciprocal relation between the Achaemenid settlements and natural environment in areas specially based on water component. The research has been carried out through the descriptive-analytical and historical method using GIS software. To reach the research goals after checking the environmental conditions, six variables including water resources types, distance from water resources, land slope, soil type, geology and settlements area were studied and the obtained results indicated the effective role of the surface water resources in settlement placement and extents. The presence of water resources, gentle land slopes and consequently ease of water flow down to the different areas of the plain, the potential to build branching canals to keep the suitable distance from the river which are the characteristics of alluvial fans, as well as settlement on the alluvial terrace to avoid flood hazards are among the factors which turned the area into population absorbing center despite the absence of aquifers and heavy dependence on surface water resources.

The occurrence of climate change around the world increases the probability of flash floods in cities, which cause great damage to lives and properties. In this paper, the damages caused to the vehicles in the flood were analyzed and damages of the Shiraz Darwazeh-Quran flood were focused as a case study. First, a 1D/2D simulation of the mentioned flood was performed using the PCSWMM model and the maximum depth and velocity values in the parking area adjacent to the water accumulation pool were estimated to be 1. 18 m and 3. 27 m/s, respectively. In this study, using the hydrodynamic index of the flood, which is defined as the product of the velocity multiplied by the depth of the flood, the curve presented in AR&R (2011) was evaluated and then corrected and extended to a depth of one meter. It was used to determine the stability and instability of passenger cars during the floods. The HAZUS MH damage depth curve was used to determine the damage. In the existing damage models, the amount of damage is presented only by considering the water depth, while the flood has the important variable of water velocity. In this study, by combining the two modified AR&R (2011) curves and HAZUS-MH with the help of their common part, i. e., the depth, and zoning of the surface below the AR&R (2011) diagram, the damage values were determined in different ranges of depth and velocity. Then, with the generation of a distributed flood risk map, the maximum amount of damage to passenger cars was estimated as 12. 5%. Finally, considering Pride 131 as the flagship vehicle, the total damage was equal to16 billion Rials.

Understanding the problem of seawater intrusion (SWI) in coastal aquifers plays an essential role in managing groundwater resources in these areas. This research examines seawater recession (SWR) in coastal aquifer in a laboratory scale; considering both homogeneous and heterogeneous environments, with and without a cutoff wall, and in a steadystate condition. For this purpose, different scenarios are defined in the laboratory, and all the effective parameters in the problem are considered and dimensionalized to facilitate salinity analysis. The laboratory data were analyzed using image processing technique and isolines with the concentration of 5%, 95%, and transition zone (Seawater hydrodynamic dispersion zone) were determined. The results showed that in a heterogeneous case, the rate of SWI was higher, and the efficiency of cutoff wall performance was higher in the homogenous case than the heterogeneous case. According to the present study results, the maximum effectiveness of cutoff wall in SWR percentage was obtained in 100% homogeneous and 92% for the heterogeneous case. The best location of the cutoff wall in this study with tank dimensions of 1 and 0. 6 meters obtained 0. 8 m from the tank bed and 0. 2 m from the saline boundary. The achieved graphs helped to design the cutoff wall in actual media optimally.

Estimating irrigation water technical efficiency (IWTE) is one of the basic measures to manage water resources. In this study, using data from 100 sugar beet farms in Urmia Lake basin, Irrigation Water Technical Efficiency (IWTE), Irrigation Water Technical Cost Efficiency (ITCE), Output-oriented Technical Efficiency (OTE) and Input-oriented Technical Efficiency (ITE) are estimated using Stochastic Frontier function. The results showed that the share of irrigation water cost is less than all other inputs and is equal to 7. 57%. The average IWTE, ITCE, OTE and ITE were estimated to be 56. 65, 96. 53, 98. 77 and 52. 87%, respectively. These results imply that the observed quantity of sugar beet (62. 91 tons) could be maintained by using the observed values of other inputs while using 43. 35% less irrigation water (3607 m3/ha). The average ITCE, which is equal to 96. 53%, suggests a potential reduction of 3. 47% of the total cost if irrigation water is adjusted to its efficient level. Correlation coefficient between IWTE and ITCE (67. 20), ITE (31. 14) and OTE (16. 44) indicates that ITCE, OTE and ITE would increase by improving IWTE. If the price of irrigation water in sugar beet production increases by 39. 88%, the amount of water used and the cost of irrigation water will decrease by 43. 35% and 3. 47%, respectively. It is suggested to increase IWTE by developing irrigation technologies and water pricing policies.

The optimal managment of pollutants discharged into the rivers plays a critical role in improving water quality. In this paper, a new method is developed for Cost-based waste-load allocation (C-WLA) modeling with trade-off between the cost of treatment at loading points and the loss of pollution at the points of withdrawal from the river system. For this purpose, the qualitative simulation model (MIKE11) is coupled with Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) algorithm. The model is applied to the Karoon River system. At the first step, the sum of treatment cost and loading damage of TDS pollutant was estimated in the river system. Then, with insights into the impacts of the trade-off policy between treatment cost of dischargers and pollutant load loss, optimal treatment percentages and optimal concentration threshold limit were determined in a monthly base and for one year. The results demonstrated that the C-WLA model has the good efficiency in managing the TDS pollutant, so that, the sum of the costs and losses is minimized at $48. 99 million with optimal concentration threshold limit of 2450 mg/l at the discharge points and with an average of 17. 85% of the optimal treatment at the loading points.

Climate change directly affects the hydrological components and water resources and plays an important role in exacerbating potential hazards such as drought and flood. Therefore, it is necessary to study the effects of climate change on hydrological components such as runoff. In this study, the runoff in Tashk-Bakhtegan basin, as one of the most important ecological basins in the country, was investigated in terms of climate change using the SWAT model. Simulation was performed for the near future (2021-2050) by applying climate change conditions in GFDL-ESM2M and IPSL_CMA5_LR models under RCP2. 6 and RCP8. 5 scenarios and in GFDLESM4 and IPSL_CMA6_LR models under SSP1-2. 6 and SSP5-8. 5 scenarios. The calibration and validation results of the SWAT model using R2, NSH and RMSE indices were in the ranges of (0. 70-0. 99), (0. 51-0. 98) and (0. 9-14. 4 m3/s), respectively which indicated the high accuracy of calibration and validation of the model. Examination of the status of climatic variables of precipitation and minimum and maximum temperature in the conditions of climate change showed an increase in temperature (1. 51-2. 91 ° C) for all models and scenarios and a decrease in precipitation (0. 05-11. 15 percent) in most models and scenarios. Simulation by SWAT hydrological model in climate change conditions showed runoff decline in all 4 stations under SSP scenarios and runoff rise in 3 stations under RCP scenarios. Given that the climate data of SSP scenarios have recently been made available, the results of this study can be useful to extend the research to the effects of these scenarios on important basins of the country and as a result of policy and planning of water resources under influence climate change.

Today, with the expansion of communities and their increasing groundwater exploitation, the scarcity of groundwater resources as a serious problem in most arid and semi-arid regions, is the main concern of managers and planners of the country's water sector. In the present study, it is intended to provide practical solutions by modeling the aquifer and applying the scenario of flood distribution to maintain and improve the aquifer condition. Since Salmas plain is located in the semi-arid region and also due to the uncontrolled abstraction, the Salmas aquifer suffers a severe crisis. To study the changes in groundwater level in Salmas aquifer after applying the flood distribution scenario, the MODFLOW mathematical code in GMS was used. The mathematical model was prepared and implemented for both steady and transient states. Then the flood spreading scenario was applied and the results showed that 2. 6 million cubic meters is stored in the aquifer, which is equivalent to 44. 7% of the total water fed to the aquifer. Applying the scenario, the water level increased on average by 13 cm at the end of October 2012, and the change in groundwater level was in the southern and middle part of the aquifer.

Managing water systems in a dynamic and highly uncertain environment has become a challenge. Multiple uncertainties have made the management of these systems a relatively difficult task. Technical approaches on their own, do not have the ability to address deep uncertainties in the management of water systems. Deep uncertainty cannot be easily remedied because it is related to high levels of governance and policymaking. In other words, decision makers have little theoretical consensus on the various components of the system. This reveals the necessity of adopting approaches which are capable of taking various types of uncertainties. The purpose of this paper is to explain and analyze the four approaches of resilience, robustness, flexibility, and adaptation in dealing with and managing deep uncertainties and to investigate their application in coupled human-natural water systems. In this article, using the descriptive-comparative method and literature review, the characteristics of the mentioned approaches have been collected and compared with each other. Finally, it was concluded that the adaptation approach, compared to other approaches, has a better ability to be used in water systems governance and management. This does not mean that other approaches are not effective in the management of such systems and, due to their inherent attributes, they can be used in the management of various parts of water systems.