Sign of groundwater improvement in Iran: Were governmental policies effective?

Groundwater, as the only source of water in arid regions, plays a crucial role in socio-economic developments. Relying on groundwater resources, agricultural developments in Iran have caused a dramatic decline in groundwater table. To prevent the rapid groundwater depletion, the government initiated some policies including detecting and sealing illegal wells and installing smart meter systems to control the groundwater withdrawal. Despite the implementation of these policies over the past 15 years, their effectiveness is still a subject of debate among researchers, experts, and the public. The absence of a framework to evaluate the effectiveness of applied policies is a highlighted research gap in Iran. Therefore, this study attempts to evaluate the effectiveness of implemented policies by developing a tailor-made framework in Khorasan Razavi province. The proposed framework is applied on 39 aquifers utilizing piezometric data of groundwater table in 844 piezometers. Findings showed implemented policies successfully contributed in preventing rapid groundwater depletion in almost all aquifers. Installing smart meter systems is detected as the most impactful policy in harnessing the rapid groundwater depletion. The proposed metric is transferable and can be applied to any aquifer. The outcomes of this research offer valuable insights for further developments of groundwater policies in Iran.