{"title":"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","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":"{\"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}","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}
Digging in the shadows: A grounded theory study on the drivers of illegal well drilling in southern Iran
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.
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.