Groundwater management in the framework of socio-ecological system: a case study of Urmia plain, Iran

The unbalanced exploitation and extraction of groundwater has put aquifers in crisis and made governance an important issue for governments. Research shows that aquifers are rarely restored after demolition. Plain Urmia in Iran with an annual reduction of 20-cm groundwater level is close to the critical disaster. The government has taken steps to exploit the water in recent years, but it has not positively affected the aquifer and has not been well received by the people. In this study, we identified factors and gaps using the resilience socio-ecological management framework of Bouchet et al. (Groundw Sustain Dev 8:579–589, 2019), which significantly impacts the current situation. We have identified factors such as economic growth, economic incentives, and population growth at the macro level as key factors influencing the groundwater management system. We also introduced internal factors such as water laws and regulations, technical approach and technological measures, power inequality among tourism operators, traditional smallholder, and commercial operators, and livelihood dependence on agriculture in the inefficiency of measures to control groundwater crisis. In addition to theoretically developing the management framework, we used empirical measures to explain it. We found that the adaptation and services of the aquifer ecosystem and the natural environment above the aquifer do not have the necessary efficiency under certain conditions such as being next to salinity factors such as lake and supra-local factors and community resilience and adaptation feedback above the aquifer plays a major role in groundwater management. This research opens both theoretical topics for study in different parts of the world and provides a framework for studying experimental projects.