Elsevier

Land Use Policy

Volume 100, January 2021, 104911
Land Use Policy

Trend assessment of the watershed health based on DPSIR framework

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.104911Get rights and content

Highlights

  • The most important environmental problems were identified at Gorganroud watershed.

  • This study has focused on analyzing watershed health using the DPSIR framework.

  • The health of Gorganroud watershed has a declining trend over the years 2004–2018.

  • Fragmented watershed governance has made serious challenges for the IWM.

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.

Introduction

Watersheds are social-ecological systems (SESs) where humans and other organisms interact with the physical environment and each other (Cabello et al., 2015; Gari et al., 2018). Watersheds can provide benefits for humans which defined as watershed services. Watershed services are essential to humans and range from water supply to water-risk mitigation to cultural benefits and ecological functions (Hamel et al., 2018). These hydrological response systems are the most appropriate units for analyzing water resources, land use planning and management (Wang et al., 2016). Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of the U.S. has shifted towards integrated watershed assessments for states (Ahn and Kim, 2019). By the late twentieth century, population growth resulted in increasing constraints on the availability of watershed services. Unfortunately, watersheds are degrading or have the potential to become impaired due to anthropogenic activities and climate change (Hazbavi and Sadeghi, 2017; Mosaffaie et al., 2015). Water deficiency, land degradation, desertification, and natural hazards are creating serious long-term sustainability problems for the health of watersheds in Iran (Mosaffaie, 2015, 2016; Sadoddin et al., 2016).

The health of watershed refers to the maintenance of the "normal" state of such a complex adaptive system. Healthy watersheds play a key role in providing watershed services (Alilou et al., 2019). Watershed health evaluation has been one of the most practical approaches for assessment of the status and dynamics of watersheds (EPA, 2014). Several efforts have been done to assess watershed health, based on factors such as climate, soil erosion, flood occurrence, water quantity and quality, or a socioeconomic index (Sadeghi and Hazbavi, 2017; Sadeghi et al., 2018; Alilou et al., 2019; Ahn and Kim, 2019; Hazbavi et al., 2019). As an instance, Hazbavi et al. (2019) assessed the Shazand watershed health based on the pressure–state–response (PSR) framework during the years 1986–2014. Therefore, assessment of watershed health is crucial for watershed management and the allocation of its natural resources.

Lack of an appropriate management system and governance mechanisms is assumed to play a major role in the improper health state of Iran watersheds (Sadoddin et al., 2016; Mosaffaie and Salehpour Jam, 2018). This situation increased recognition of the importance of and need for an integrated approach to watershed management. Watershed management is an ever-evolving practice involving the management of land, water, biota, and other resources in a watershed for ecological, social, and economic purposes (Wang et al., 2016; Mosaffaie and Salehpour Jam, 2018). Integrated watershed management grapples with the complexity of interactions between socio-economic systems and ecosystems, and aims to sustain and restore the health, biodiversity, and productivity of ecosystems through strategies that integrate the needs of the economy and the society (Einar, 2010; Qi and Altinakar, 2013). Considering the importance of IWM, a national mega-project has been approved by the High Council of Sciences, Research, and Technology of Iran to apply such an approach. Project executers developed a framework for IWM with 6 main steps. The first step is watershed system recognition which followed by outlining the conceptual model, designing solutions, choosing solutions, implementing solutions, monitoring and evaluating achievement respectively (Sadoddin et al., 2016). This framework has been implemented in Gorganroud watershed as a pilot before implementing for all over the country. According to the first step of this framework, it is essential to assess ecological problems for watershed health, which will help inform the decision-making and planning process. Since conceptual frameworks are useful to outline the watershed health (Hazbavi et al., 2019), this study was aimed to assess the health of Gorganroud watershed based on Driving force-Pressure-State-Impact-Response (DPSIR) framework.

The DPSIR framework is one of the original tools for adaptive management of SESs (Gari et al., 2015). This conceptual approach is extensively used for analyzing environmental problems by establishing cause-effect relations between anthropogenic activities and their environmental and socio-economic consequences (e.g. OECD, 1993; EEA, 1995; Bidone and Elliott, 2002; Lacerda, 2003; Borja et al., 2006; Haase and Nuissi, 2007; Svarstad et al., 2008; Bell, 2012; Kagalou et al., 2012; Tscherning et al., 2012; Namaalwa et al., 2013; Sun et al., 2016; Gari et al., 2018; Mell, 2020). The two features that have contributed to the wide use of DPSIR are, (i) it structures the indicators regarding the political objectives related to the environmental problem addressed; and (ii) it focuses on supposed causal relationships in a clear way that appeals to policy actors (Smeets and Weterings, 1999). Shao et al. (2014) present the framework as an investigative tool that analyses socio-economic and ecological issues answering the questions of what, why and how. “What happened?” which is described by S term, is what the evaluator first addresses and also is the focal point of the evaluation. After “What happened?” is clear, it is necessary to analyze why it happens because it can guarantee and guide evaluators about what happens. It is also a necessary condition to understand “how to address it”. The DPSIR model depicts “why it happened” through P and D terms. After knowing why it happened, we can and should further analyze “how to deal with it”. There are many ways to achieve this goal, either directly through S or I, or acting on P or D. Gari et al. (2015) concluded that DPSIR is a useful adaptive management tool for analyzing and identifying solutions to environmental problems. For adaptive management, this approach brings together natural science, social science including economics in one framework and considers human activities as an integral part of the ecosystem. Therefore the DPSIR is also a useful tool for identifying policy direction which enhances the sustainable utilization and appropriate management of watershed resources.

Noting these preliminaries, the main objectives of this paper are to identify the most important environmental problems for the health of Gorganroud watershed (What happened or S term as strong representative of watershed health), analyzing why they have happened, and to suggest appropriate responses (How to deal with them?) which enable planning of management alternatives for sustainable use of watershed services. The specific objectives consist of identification and analysis of (i) the various drivers leading to watershed problems; (ii) pressures related to the identified drivers; (iii) impacts resulting from state change; (iv) responses and policy directions which help to sustainable utilization of watershed services.

Section snippets

Study area

The Gorganroud is a river in northeastern Iran, flowing through Golestan province and ends to Caspian Sea. Although Iran is generally classified as arid and semi-arid, the climate of Gorganroud watershed is characterized as being semiarid in the east and wet in the western regions. The average annual precipitation ranges from 195 to 946 mm and the temperature of the basin ranges between 11–18.1 °C annually in watershed stations. Approximately 36 % of the normal precipitation falls from January

Casual analysis of the main important environmental problems

The focal point of DPSIR analysis is the S (state) index. According to field studies, literature reviews, and also interviews with the stakeholders, firstly, 10 environmental problems were identified in Gorganroud watershed. These problems have led to adverse impacts on watershed health and consequently, reducing in watershed services. The prioritization results of the Friedman test have been presented in Table 1. This showed the loss of groundwater resources, flood and soil erosion rate are

Conclusions

This study was aimed to analyze the main environmental problems for the health of Gorganroud watershed based on the DPSIR framework. Among the study variables, the loss of groundwater resources, flood potential, and soil erosion rate are the main problems for watershed health. The trend of each DPSIR index was also shown according to 18 quantitative indicators during the years 2004–2018. This study indicated that the health of Gorganroud watershed becomes worse over time due to the

Declaration of Competing Interest

The author declares no conflict of interest

Acknowledgments

This work which was conducted as a research project with code 24-29-29-027-980430 was jointly supported by the Soil Conservation and Watershed Management Research Institute (SCWMRI) and Gorgan University of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources. The authors sincerely appreciate all the officials and specialists of the organizations and offices of Golestan Province for preparing data. The authors are also grateful to the anonymous referees for their valuable suggestions and comments.

Jamal Mosaffaie was born & lived in Iran since 1978. He graduated from Yazd University and got his pH.D. degree in watershed management. His research interests focus on the watershed management, soil & water conservation, flood risk management, landslide risk management. He currently serves as a scientific member (assistant professor) for Soil Conservation and Watershed Management Research Institute (SCWMRI), Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Tehran, Iran.

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    Jamal Mosaffaie was born & lived in Iran since 1978. He graduated from Yazd University and got his pH.D. degree in watershed management. His research interests focus on the watershed management, soil & water conservation, flood risk management, landslide risk management. He currently serves as a scientific member (assistant professor) for Soil Conservation and Watershed Management Research Institute (SCWMRI), Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization (AREEO), Tehran, Iran.

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