characterizing groundwater stress in the mond basin, southern iran

Groundwater levels are declining at alarming rates due to overexploitation and they are subject to stress particularly in semi-arid and arid regions. assessing the stress of groundwater resources is crucial for science-based policy and management. current study presents a general overview of groundwater stress and prioritize aquifers under stress at a basin scale. renewable, exploitable groundwater, total groundwater withdrawal and consumption, groundwater recharge from return flow were used as the groundwater hydrogeological variables to evaluate and compare intensity of groundwater stress in the mond basin 61 aquifers by application of available framework (hout-hin) and wtr, ctr and wte indicators. results of all investigated indicators and framework indicated and confirmed that majority of mond basin aquifers spatially; dahkuieh, dengz, baghan and khormayek aquifers are under stress. according to two-dimensional framework, most aquifers of the mond basin have hout values higher than 0.75 and all aquifers of the mond basin have hin value less than 0.5. for more severely stressed aquifers, hout value is close to one, which showed a purely withdrawal-dominated in these aquifers. demand for water along with limited water resources and consequently water supply-demand imbalance, are more factors causing and intensifying this stress increasing. our results and methodology will be useful for hydrologists, water resource managers, and policy makers to more care of groundwater.