Water is now an important issue in the world, and the effective development of water resources and optimal management of industrial projects are essential for sustainable growth. Limitations and crises of water and wastewater companies in the supply and optimal exploitation of water resources and wastewater disposal require strategic planning and management, thereby increasing the competitive advantages of human societies. Given the importance of optimal management of water and wastewater industry projects, the present research sought to detect and introduce indices and criteria, which affected the optimal management of this industry based on certain models (Porter Diamond Model, Porter's Five Forces, and PESTEL), by examining and analyzing political, economic, and socio-cultural trends and using the results of interpretation and analysis of trends. To this end, the experts in the water and wastewater industry, as well as the managers working in this industry were surveyed. Based on experts' opinions, the results of the certain criteria after screening were finally converted into 22 out of 95 criteria using the fuzzy Delphi technique, and then the 22 criteria selected by the experts were reviewed and any of them with the potential to be quantified and their trends could be examined, were selected and quantified. Finally, the results introduced 12 indices in three categories: economic indices (similar in all industries), specialized indices of water and wastewater, and cultural-educational indices. The Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the complexity of the supply chain of the water and wastewater industry, and cultural infrastructures (Intellectual maturity, management attitude, education, corruption, and population) were respectively representatives of the indices.

Project delivery systems, as the structure of the contract and the formation ‎of relations between the project ‎participants, create a framework for the ‎formation of contracts of different types of projects by allocating risk ‎‎among the project participants. Delivery systems can greatly affect the ‎time, financial, or quality goals of the ‎organization and are generally ‎classified into 5 categories: In house, Traditional, Design Build, Construct ‎‎management, and Public-Private Partnership (PPP). Each delivery system ‎has its own advantages and limitations, ‎which makes the choice between ‎them dependent on the project conditions and client's expectations. In this ‎article, ‎a new approach based on the allocation of contractual risks is ‎presented, with the help of which the employer can ‎choose the project ‎procurement system depending on the level of risk acceptable by the ‎employer. For this purpose, ‎by studying the records of risk allocation in ‎‎26 water projects in Iran, 14 main Contractual Risks have been ‎‎introduced, which are the basis of decision making for the project delivery ‎system. Based on his organizational ‎capacity in accepting a certain level ‎of 14 risks, the decision maker can select the appropriate delivery system ‎for ‎the project. Based on this approach, a multi-objective decision-making ‎model has been developed, which, by ‎receiving the project's risk profile, ‎quantitatively suggests the optimal structure and determines its level of ‎risks ‎exposure (in the form of an increase in the project's cost price). The ‎sensitivity analysis tool of this model also ‎guides the employer which ‎contractual tools or management capacities the employer should provide ‎in case of ‎using a specific contractual model.‎

Large and complex infrastructural projects, especially water and wastewater projects always exposed to various internal and external risks. Given the increasing volume and complexity of rural water and wastewater projects, the constraints on funding and resources required their success in identifying, assessing, prioritizing and managing these risks. In this research, using research literature, checklist, experts, and expert opinions, the risks in rural and rural sewage projects in Gilan identified based on the 10 areas of the project management knowledge standard. The ranking indexes in this study include two parts of the primary and secondary indices: 16 effective risk factors among 60 risks, using the initial indicators based on the probability of occurrence and the degree of risk impact on the initial indexes of the project (time, cost, quality, performance) Determined. In the next step, based on additional indicators, the amount of exposure to risk, the level of manageability, the proximity of the occurrence of risk, the socio-economic effects and the environmental impacts (which are proportional to the climate and geographical area studied), are used by two methods of fuzzy topsization and hierarchical analysis Fuzzy has been evaluated for project risks. Finally, by integrating the results with simple averaging, the final ranking of the risks specified. The result of the research showed that the risk of insufficient funding at the due time chosed as the most important risk. In addition, the risk of non-payment of time claims of contractors and work force with a mean score of 2 and the risk of not using feedback results in quality control and implementation with a mean score of 3. 5 were in the next priorities. The results of the research show that the rural water and Wastewater Company of Guilan should be adopt special measures for the required budget in order to manage the identified risks, and to conduct more detailed studies of validation in various projects in the preparatory phases. . It also pledges to pay in due time claims and analysis in control and quality and implementation.

According to the forecast of future population growth and recent droughts in the country, one of the major challenges for policymakers on the one hand is to provide safe drinking water and on the other hand, is to solve environmental and health problems caused by undesirable wastewater disposal. To solve this problem in Mashhad, the regional water company of Khorasan Razavi and the water and wastewater company of Mashhad in multilateral cooperation have developed an effluent model to construct a wastewater treatment plant, water supply, and effluent recycling. In this model, due to the lack of public budget and internal resources of companies, the use of private capital by transferring wastewater to the investor to achieve environmental goals and water supply in Mashhad, which has significant benefits for the private sector and community is defined. In this model, two investment packages have been developed between the two companies, the details of which are discussed in the paper. What is very important in this project is to achieve a sustainable effluent model for achieving the defined goals. In this investment model, a total of 93% of water needs and 29% of the required capacity for wastewater treatment will be provided.

Purpose: This study aims to develop a hybrid model by integrating categorized and multi-layered Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to account for fundamental differences in operational budgets and to progressively determine benchmark units, thus providing an improvement framework for inefficient companies. In this regard, the performance of Water and Wastewater companies has been examined due to their critical role in the production and distribution of safe drinking water and wastewater management. Methodology: First, companies were classified into three homogeneous groups (low, medium, and high) based on their operational budgets for 2022, as financial resource disparities significantly influence efficiency. Then, performance indicators were identified using the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) approach across four dimensions: financial, customer, internal processes, and learning and growth. Subsequently, the companies’ performance was evaluated using the Slack-Based Measure (SBM) model within the framework of categorized and multi-layered DEA under the assumptions of Constant Returns to Scale (CRS) and Variable Returns to Scale (VRS). The categorized DEA approach was employed to identify reference units within each homogeneous group, while the multi-layered DEA model provided a stepwise improvement pathway. Findings: The results indicated that the categorized DEA approach identifies benchmark units among similar companies. Additionally, some companies with lower budgets can serve as benchmarks for those with higher budgets, provided they manage their performance indicators effectively. Furthermore, in the multi-layered DEA model, the performance improvement path under constant returns to scale was more gradual, whereas under VRS, this path was shorter and faster. This difference suggests that under CRS, inefficient units require more corrective steps to reach the efficiency frontier. Originality/Value: The integration of categorized and multi-layered DEA provides an innovative approach for performance evaluation and continuous improvement. This approach helps inefficient companies identify their inefficiency sources and progressively enhance their performance by benchmarking against more efficient companies.

Public participation in the construction of water treatment plants is not desirable, this research was conducted by using the people's participation on the effectiveness of evaluation studies on the effects of development on wastewater management in order to reduce economic, social and environmental problems and by using questionnaire tools and completing it by citizens in the field. This research is descriptive-analytical. The statistical population includes the residents of Firoz Bahram neighborhood, including general residents, students and refinery workers. A statistical sample of 274 people was selected by simple random sampling with Cochran's formula. The reliability of the questionnaire was confirmed by Cronbach's alpha coefficient (0.9). After validation, the questionnaire was evaluated under the supervision of experts and the data was analyzed at the level of descriptive statistics. According to the one-way variance analysis test and the analysis of this test, there is a significant relationship between people's education and the effectiveness of popular participation. According to the results, the notification of the water and wastewater company in the field of related activities is 24.1% very good, 13.5% very poor, the role of citizens in achieving and rejecting the project is 35% very good, 8% very poor and the level of transparency and justice in general participation is 10.6% very good, 28.8% very poor. Also, 86.1% approved and 13.9% rejected the effectiveness of government officials' attitude in applying cooperative projects. Management, economic problems, social costs and information are effective factors in the lack of acceptance and public participation in sewage projects. Also, the notification of development plans should be continued continuously before the start of the project, during its implementation and completion.

Strategic human resources can be considered as an excellent way to manage employees and coordinate with the future goals of the organization. With this perspective, human resource empowerment programs are formulated in line with the organization's strategies. The purpose of this research is to provide a strategic model of human resource empowerment based on the integration of transformational leadership strategies, Job involvement and dimensions (individual, organizational and strategic) of empowerment in water and waste water companies in West and East Azarbaijan provinces. The research method is of qualitative type and in terms of results it is considered as applied research. The meta-synthesis method was used in the qualitative section and the structural-interpretive modeling method was used to draw the structural model. The results of the research show that the obtained integrated model includes 12 levels and 29 factors in 3 dimensions. The vision, missions and values index is placed at level 12 and is considered as the most influential index and directly affects the criteria of level 11, policies and processes. Employee indicators are feedback, participation in decision, control and sense of competence in the first level, which are selected as the most effective level. This research is one of the first studies that has analyzed and reviewed the internal relationship of the components in the form of a consolidated model in the water and wastewater industry in an aligned and coordinated manner.

The limitation of the use of fossil fuels, increasing environmental concerns caused by the excessive consumption of fossil fuels, growth in population and energy consumption, power losses, low efficiency of thermal power plants as the issues that improve energy efficiency and the use of renewable resources. Thus, the water and wastewater industry has the potential of renewable energy due to the availability of facilities such as water pipelines and underground reservoirs, which this issue not only provides the possibility of the construction of renewable power plants, but also it is a good alternative to fossil fuels for reasons such as the lack of renewable energy, low cost of production, exploitation of minimum water potential, less social and environmental problems in order to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increase the number of distributed generation of small scale. The losses in power distribution networks as one of the key parameters in energy efficiency, the importance of water and wastewater industry as a great potential for the distributed generation shows. In this paper, the potential of the water and wastewater industry for the distributed generation of clean energy with an emphasis on the benefits of micro-hydropower systems in this industry has been investigated for Tehran.

Despite the focus on smart management systems in the water and wastewater sector of Iran, little attention has been paid to the operational objectives and the prerequisites of their implementation. Furthermore, despite the huge investments made, the neglect of this issue has undermined their effectiveness. Accordingly, In order to analyze the factors affecting the location of smart water and wastewater facilities, this research has been done from the perspective of their establishment requirements. After reviewing the available documentation, Interviewing, Thematic analysis, Focus group formation and Thematic network design, in the second step, to check the validity of the themes, questionnaire design, Sample size and Normality test, KMO coefficient, Bartlett's Spear test, Factor Analysis and goodness-of-fit tests were used to identify the factors affecting the location of smart facilities and finally, Factor loading were used to rank the measurable variables. The results show that the latent variable of smart water management mystem deployment prerequisites is more effective than the latent variable of deployment goals of the mentioned system. option "Have a proper implementation strategy" of the components required to deploy the smart water system has the most impact and "Smart distribution network management" of the deployment goals variables have the most impact on the implementation of smart facilities in the water and wastewater industry.