Optimal water resources allocation in transboundary river basins according to hydropolitical consideration

Water resources allocation policies can create cooperation or tension among different stakeholders in a large basin. Thus, integrated water resources management and optimal water allocation are crucial to mitigating water stress and conflicts, while maintaining the economic benefits of the basin. The objective of this study is to develop a multi-objective optimization model to optimize water resources allocation among the stakeholders (including all water sectors in eight provinces) in the Sefidrud River basin in Iran. The objective functions consist of (1) maximizing the economic profits of all stakeholders over the planning time horizon and (2) minimizing the Gini coefficient (a socioeconomic indicator) to achieve the equity in water resources allocation in the society. According to the optimization results, the provinces of Guilan and Hamadan, respectively, had the highest and lowest amounts of water allocated. The results also showed that serious water conflicts in this transboundary river basin can be prevented by changing the current operation, which is based on the provincial divisions, and altering the existing agricultural and industrial water allocations especially for the three more populated provinces including Zanjan, Guilan, and East Azerbaijan.