Structural Explanation of the Environmental Geopolitical Consequences of the Water Crisis in the Watersheds of Western Fars Province

Subject Areas : Environmental crises

Abolfazl Nazari ¹ , Hojat Mahkouei ² , Amir Gandomkar ³ , Ali Shamsodini ⁴

1 - دانشجو معلم.آموزش و پرورش
2 - Department of Geography, Najafabad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Najafabad, Iran.
3 - Department of Geography, Najafabad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Najafabad, Iran.
4 - Department of Urban Planing, Shiraz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shiraz, Iran.

Received: 2024-06-14 Accepted : 2024-08-07 Published : 2024-09-19

Keywords: Water Crisis, Consequences, Structural Explanation, Environmental, Geopolitics,

Abstract :

Introduction: Human's relationship with the natural environment without water reserves or accessible resources can only be a one-sided and rootless relationship for humans. This importance has caused some Geopoliticians to believe that most of the conflicts and regional wars in the world will be due to water scarcity and crisis. In fact, the only reason is not limited resources, but other factors such as periodic droughts, excessive use of resources, hydrological conditions, social factors such as population growth, migration, lack of proper culture of consumption and mismanagement of resources, inability of responsible institutions. In order to provide water transfer services and ...  also have a great impact on it.

 

Materials and Methods: The purpose of the current research is to explain the environmental geopolitical consequences of the water crisis in the catchment basins of western Fars province. This research is applied in terms of purpose and descriptive-analytical in terms of method. The statistical population of this research is 138 experts and elite people in the field of political geography and water resources management in Fars province, and the sample size was considered to be 102 people using Morgan's table. 

 

 

Results and Discussion: Research variables in the field of environmental geopolitical consequences of water crisis in Fars province are divided into 4 categories including natural environment, animal-plant environment, human environment, climate. The comparison table of the averages shows that the status of all 4 indicators is in the medium to high level and this indicates the critical situation of the watersheds in the west of Fars province in terms of environmental geopolitical consequences and among them the climate index is in a more acute situation than the other 3 indicators. The indicators of animal-plant environment, natural environment and human environment are in the next ranks in terms of critical situation. In this part, by using the path analysis of structural equations and confirmatory factor analysis, the influence of each of the consequences of the water crisis in the catchment basins of the west of Fars province has been investigated.

 

Conclusion: The results of the path analysis of structural equations showed that the animal-plant environment is most affected by the water crisis in the western areas of Fars province, followed by the natural environment, climate and human environment. Also, factor coefficients showed that in the animal-plant environment, the items reduction of aquaculture in the catchment area, loss of animal species, In the natural environment, the issues water salinization, pollution of soil resources, soil salinization, destruction and drying of canals and wells, In climate, the items increase in temperature, increase in desert areas and regional climate change and in the human environment, items destruction of infrastructure and houses, destruction of villages, increase in disease had the highest factor load. 

 

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