Socio-economic aspects of some watershed management projects in Mateh-Sang watershed, Iran

摘要

Watershed management plays an important role in supplying water, especially in arid areas. Adjust the water flow, exploitation of seasonal flood waters and reservation of precipitation is one of the ways to solve water shortage. Objective was study of socio-economic aspects of some watershed management projects in Mateh-Sang watershed. The study has been carried out using questionnaires that their validity were tested by professionals of watershed management and natural resource experts. Reliability coefficient was determined using SPSS software and Cronbach's alpha coefficient was obtained between 76.0 and 78.0 for different scales. To evaluate the economic impact of watershed management projects in the region, the cost-benefit analysis, questionnaire survey and chi-square test have been used. The benefit to cost ratio of 1.03 is obtained which shows the economic feasibility of the projects. Chi-square test results in social debate and evaluation of watershed management project through questionnaires, representing a decrease of migration, reduce flooding, reduce unemployment, flood and sedimentation control, satisfaction of watershed management projects and participate fully in the projects. Also in the economic debate, the results of statistical analysis of the relationship between watershed management projects (mechanical) and increasing the production and vegetation cover, increasing the number of livestock, increasing the amount of water resources and increasing the area of farm lands and horticultural lands and reducing the area of bare lands imply a rejection of the null hypothesis and statistical significance of these relationships. In general, watershed mechanical projects in this study have demonstrated the multi-functional positive aspects.