Evaluation of the Water Policies of the Urmia Lake Basin: Has the Government Accurately Identified the Problem?

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size AcknowledgementsThe authors would like to express their sincere gratitude to the respected Editor-in-Chief and the anonymous referees for their helpful comments and constructive suggestions.The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.Editing assistance was provided by a past editorial team member.Disclosure StatementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.Notes1 E. R. Alexander and A. Faludi, “Planning and Plan Implementation: Notes on Evaluation Criteria,” Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design 16, no. 2 (1989): 127–40, doi:10.1068/b160127.2 L. N. Gerston, Public Policy Making Process and Principles (New York: Armonk, 1997).3 D. Nachmais, Public Policy Evaluation: Approaches and Methods (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1979).4 M. Scriven, Evaluation Thesaurus (Newbury Park, CA: Sage, 1991).5 S. Islam and L. E. 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Upshur, “Acting on an Environmental Health Disaster: The Case of the Aral Sea.,” Environmental Health Perspectives 109, no. 6 (2001): 547–49, doi:10.1289/ehp.01109547.For a short video showing how the disappearance of the Great Salt Lake in Utah mirrors Urmia Lake, see the 2023 Yale E360 Film contest winner “Vanishing Oasis” by filmmaker Jaxon Derow available online at https://e360.yale.edu/features/2023-film-contest-first-place-great-salt-lakeAdditional informationNotes on contributorsSaeed EsmailzadehSaeed Esmailzadeh is a graduate in water resources engineering at the University of Tehran. His research interests include problem identification, policy evaluation, wicked problems, and water governance.Atefeh Parvaresh RiziAtefeh Parvaresh Rizi is an associate professor in the Irrigation and Reclamation Engineering Department at the University of Tehran. Her research interests include management of irrigation projects, social topics in water engineering, and hydraulic structures.Hojjat MianabadiHojjat Mianabadi is an associate professor in the Water Engineering and Management Department at the Tarbiat Modares University. His research interests revolve around hydropolitics, water diplomacy, and water governance.