Urban Climate Adaptation and Mitigation - Chapter 15 - Technological solutions for adaptation with Iran's water resources crisis

Due to severe water shortages and high demand for this scarce resource, proper management and planning to conserve this resource is very important. In solving water crises, technologies along with proper management and planning have always been helpful and have created the conditions for the world to remain habitable for humans. The present study investigated Iran's water crisis caused by the depletion of water resources and provided technological solutions to adapt to the crisis and achieve a water resources equilibrium. The research conducted 30 in-depth interviews with environmental and water experts to find high-priority technological solutions for the particular conditions of Iran. It showed that the challenges related to Iran's water crisis and climate change are due to two macro-challenges: (a) incompatibility of the economic development model with the environmental development model and (b) incompatibility of the governance model with the environmental changes. High priority technologies to help solve this problem were found to be water extraction technologies from air humidity, smart volumetric meters, remote sensing systems to manage groundwater and measure soil subsidence, hydroponic greenhouse cultivation, intelligent flood warning systems, and seawater desalination technologies.