Conservation Practices of Groundwater Resources in Arid Region and Water Scarcity Adaptation; Case Study of Birjand Plain

Aims and Background: The water resources conservation includes all measurements focusing on optimal consumption and reduction of stress on water resources and its final consequence is energy and financial resources saving. Aim of this study was to examine economically consequences of conservation practices and their impacts on groundwater resources management. Methodology: Examination of allocation conditions was carried out through WEAP Software. Optimization of agriculture cultivation pattern also has been performed using PSO algorithm in MATLAB. The examination of sewage potential of urban wastewater treatment were assessed to supply the fraction of the unconventional water resources. Also, the use of Rain Water Harvesting Systems (RHSs) with the aim of compensation of non-drinking water in residential areas and with using long term precipitation statistics of region were assessed. Findings: Change of annual allocation situation (industry share is raised to 25.8 percent and agriculture share is down to 49 percent) can save 10 billion cubic meter annualy. Consequence of PSO algorithm revealed that there is a potential to increase income of selling crops to 10 times of current expenses. The implementation results of RHSs showed that widespread utilization of them for all subscribes can save 2 billion cubic meter annualy. Assessment of the sewage reuse of the wastewater treatment showed that, it could improve 5.6 billion cubic meter of groundwater depletion annualy. Conclusion: It can be inferred from results that groundwater stress can be reduced considerably through implementation of modelling ground water resource allocation, optimization of agriculture cultivation pattern, capacity to use sewage potential of urban wastewater treatment and   rainwater harvesting system.