Water Resources Management and Social Issues

Dear Colleagues,

Water resources management is a multidisciplinary problem involving, among others, social, political, and economic issues. Based on water scarcity, population growth, climate change, and various polluting resources, water resources management has in recent years become an important problem with multidimensional complexity around the world.

The socio-hydrology concept has an essential role in future research in terms of addressing the challenges of coupling human behavior and water systems, such as surface water, groundwater, transboundary resources, inter-basin transfer, reservoirs, etc. To improve the concept, it is necessary to consider further issues such as the power of actors, economic motivation and goals, and hydropolitics.

In this view, stakeholders and their utility have major roles in managing water systems; they also have conflicting goals, and therefore, a solution is required to apply conflict resolution or game theories. In other words, justice in water allocation among water users (i.e., agricultural, municipal, industrial, and environmental water use) should be considered for achieving sustainable water quality/quantity management. The behavior of users and agents in water resources management is a challenge where mathematical models could be adopted.

This Special Issue invites papers and research on systematic and dynamic water resources management following social behavior, water quality and quantity allocation, economic targets, solving conflicts, water justice, and environmental sustainability.

Prof. Dr. Mohammad Hossein Niksokhan
Guest Editor

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