Digging in the shadows: A grounded theory study on the drivers of illegal well drilling in southern Iran

IF 5.3 2区环境科学与生态学 Q2 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Environmental Development Pub Date : 2025-08-30 DOI:10.1016/j.envdev.2025.101338

Masoud Yazdanpanah , Fatemeh Zahra Romina , Zeinab Sharifi , Katharina Löhr , Michelle Bonatti , Stefan Sieber

{"title":"Digging in the shadows: A grounded theory study on the drivers of illegal well drilling in southern Iran","authors":"Masoud Yazdanpanah , Fatemeh Zahra Romina , Zeinab Sharifi , Katharina Löhr , Michelle Bonatti , Stefan Sieber","doi":"10.1016/j.envdev.2025.101338","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The agricultural sector is the largest consumer of water resources in Iran. Due to the country's physical and geographical constraints, groundwater overexploitation has intensified, making illegal well drilling an increasingly critical and uncontrolled national issue. This study investigates the underlying causes of illegal well drilling in Bushehr province using a qualitative grounded theory approach. Data was collected through in-depth, open-ended interviews, document analysis, and observations. The study's statistical population comprised farmers with water wells and experts from relevant organizations. Using snowball sampling, data collection continued until theoretical saturation was reached, resulting in a total of 53 interviews (23 farmers and 30 experts). The grounded theory analysis followed three coding stages: open, axial, and selective coding. Open coding yielded 322 concepts, which were refined into 21 categories during axial coding. Ultimately, a paradigm model of the drivers of illegal well drilling in southern Iran was presented including the main phenomenon, contextual conditions, causal conditions, intervening conditions, strategies, and consequences. Providing a comprehensive conception of the subject, the findings can pave the route for mitigating illegal well drilling and promoting sustainable groundwater management.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":54269,"journal":{"name":"Environmental Development","volume":"57 ","pages":"Article 101338"},"PeriodicalIF":5.3000,"publicationDate":"2025-08-30","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Environmental Development","FirstCategoryId":"93","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211464525002040","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}

引用次数: 0

Abstract

The agricultural sector is the largest consumer of water resources in Iran. Due to the country's physical and geographical constraints, groundwater overexploitation has intensified, making illegal well drilling an increasingly critical and uncontrolled national issue. This study investigates the underlying causes of illegal well drilling in Bushehr province using a qualitative grounded theory approach. Data was collected through in-depth, open-ended interviews, document analysis, and observations. The study's statistical population comprised farmers with water wells and experts from relevant organizations. Using snowball sampling, data collection continued until theoretical saturation was reached, resulting in a total of 53 interviews (23 farmers and 30 experts). The grounded theory analysis followed three coding stages: open, axial, and selective coding. Open coding yielded 322 concepts, which were refined into 21 categories during axial coding. Ultimately, a paradigm model of the drivers of illegal well drilling in southern Iran was presented including the main phenomenon, contextual conditions, causal conditions, intervening conditions, strategies, and consequences. Providing a comprehensive conception of the subject, the findings can pave the route for mitigating illegal well drilling and promoting sustainable groundwater management.

查看原文本刊更多论文

在阴影中挖掘：对伊朗南部非法钻井驱动因素的扎根理论研究

农业部门是伊朗最大的水资源消耗者。由于国家的自然和地理限制，地下水过度开采愈演愈烈，使得非法钻井成为日益严重和不受控制的全国性问题。本文采用定性扎根理论的方法，探讨了布什尔省非法钻井的根本原因。通过深入、开放式访谈、文献分析和观察收集数据。该研究的统计人口包括有水井的农民和相关组织的专家。使用滚雪球抽样，数据收集一直持续到达到理论饱和，总共进行了53次访谈（23名农民和30名专家）。扎根理论分析遵循三个编码阶段：开放编码、轴向编码和选择性编码。开放编码产生322个概念，轴向编码细化为21个类别。最后，提出了伊朗南部非法钻井驱动因素的范式模型，包括主要现象、背景条件、因果条件、干预条件、策略和后果。研究结果提供了一个全面的主题概念，可以为减少非法钻井和促进可持续地下水管理铺平道路。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

求助全文

约1分钟内获得全文求助全文

来源期刊

Environmental Development Social Sciences-Geography, Planning and Development

CiteScore

8.40

自引率

1.90%

发文量

审稿时长

74 days

期刊介绍： Environmental Development provides a future oriented, pro-active, authoritative source of information and learning for researchers, postgraduate students, policymakers, and managers, and bridges the gap between fundamental research and the application in management and policy practices. It stimulates the exchange and coupling of traditional scientific knowledge on the environment, with the experiential knowledge among decision makers and other stakeholders and also connects natural sciences and social and behavioral sciences. Environmental Development includes and promotes scientific work from the non-western world, and also strengthens the collaboration between the developed and developing world. Further it links environmental research to broader issues of economic and social-cultural developments, and is intended to shorten the delays between research and publication, while ensuring thorough peer review. Environmental Development also creates a forum for transnational communication, discussion and global action. Environmental Development is open to a broad range of disciplines and authors. The journal welcomes, in particular, contributions from a younger generation of researchers, and papers expanding the frontiers of environmental sciences, pointing at new directions and innovative answers. All submissions to Environmental Development are reviewed using the general criteria of quality, originality, precision, importance of topic and insights, clarity of exposition, which are in keeping with the journal''s aims and scope.