Title: Investigation on water content of selected agricultural products of East Azarbaijan and West Azarbaijan

Authors: Marzieh Momeni; Zahra Zakeri; Sina Zahedi; Vahid Razavi

Addresses: Groundwater Research Institute, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran ' Faculty of Economics, Allameh tabataba'i Univeristy, Tehran, Iran ' Groundwater Research Institute, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran ' Research Institute for Science, Technology and Industry Policy, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran

Abstract: According to environmental sustainability indicators, Iran is considered to be in an undesirable situation. Analysing solutions for the current water crisis is, consequently, essential. The current study concentrates on the agricultural water efficiency in East and West Azarbaijan. Regarding sustainable development index of The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for water resources, this basin which covers the main part of this area is exposed to extremely high risks of drought (> 40 %). Statistics indicate that agriculture sector consumes almost 91.8 % of allocated water in this area. In order to focus on water consumption in agriculture sector partial equilibrium method was utilised to calculate real virtual water content. This method compares the amount of allocated water to that calculated based on water requirement of selected products. The results show that water efficiency for producing most of the agricultural products in East/West Azarbaijan is almost 21%.

Keywords: water crisis; real virtual water content; water consumption efficiency; partial equilibrium; agriculture sector; selected agricultural products; East Azarbaijan; West Azarbaijan; Urmia basin.

DOI: 10.1504/IJHST.2019.098163

International Journal of Hydrology Science and Technology, 2019 Vol.9 No.2, pp.189 - 200

Received: 14 Jun 2017
Accepted: 29 Sep 2017

Published online: 05 Mar 2019 *

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