Resolving Transboundary Water Conflicts: Lessons Learned from the Qezelozan-Sefidrood River Bankruptcy Problem

The Qezelozan-Sefidrood River Basin is an Iranian transboudary river basin, shared by eight provinces, namely Kurdistan, Zanjan, Hamadan, Eastern Azerbaijan, Ardabil, Tehran, Qazvin, and Gilan. Recent developments and the existing development plans in these provinces have triggered new conflicts between the riparian parties. This study shows how various fair allocation rules can be developed based on bankruptcy methods to resolve transboundary river problems in which the total demand imposed on river at a specific time and location in the river basin, exceeds the available water. Four bankruptcy methods, namely the Proportional (P), Adjusted Proportional (AP), Constrained Equal Award (CEA), and the Constrained Equal Losses (CEL) rules are applied to suggest fair allocation schemes for different scenarios, representing the possible future development and climatic conditions in the basin. To identify the most acceptable allocation scheme for each scenario, Plurality rule is applied. Results suggest that the CEA-based scheme is the most acceptable allocation under all scenarios.