Transferring Water Accounting Plus knowledge to the Iranian
experts

As part of the project Integrated Programme for Sustainable
Water Resources Management in the Urmia Lake Basin, kindly funded by the
Embassy of Japan, an advanced water-accounting system to enhance the management
of water resources in the Urmia Lake Basin was introduced and capacity
development initiatives related to water education implemented by FAO experts
and consultants.

In 2021, the Water Accounting Plus for the whole Urmia Lake
Basin was calculated, and the related maps were prepared by a
multi-disciplinary team of national experts with FAO supervision. The Sharif
University of Technology, as the designated focal point for updating Water
Accounting of the Basin and national experts from different stakeholders,
acquired Water Accounting know-how through the project's continuous and
comprehensive effort that has been started in 2017. Water Accounting Plus, by
using advanced remote sensing science, provides a framework for effectively managing
the Basin's water resources and consumption. The framework highlights
evapotranspiration (ET) hotspots where the Basin loses water. A set of
scenarios for these hotspots that will increase water productivity and result
in maximum water saving in the Basin were identified and reported. The 2021
Water Accounting of the Basin includes up-to-date land cover, crop, and ET maps
of the Urmia Lake Basin in high-resolution. All the analytical reports are
available for the project’s stakeholders; the Ministry of Agriculture Jahad,
the Ministry of Energy, the Department of Environment and a number of academic
institutions.

FAO brought international knowledge (seven FAO experts and
two international institutes) and national capacities (two national
universities and 300 national experts) together to materialize this dynamic and
equipped process.

https://www.fao.org/iran/news/detail-events/en/c/1512817/