Challenge of benefits in water resources management and game Theory

Increasing demands in natural resources, due The development of human society and technological advancements, leads the all of natural sources like the limited water resources to challenge between consumers by conflicting interests that cause to reciprocal competition between decision makers (Wang, Fang, & Hipel, 2003; Kucukmehmetoglu, 2012). To solve such issues, most to simultaneously optimizing all conflicting purposes (Madani, 2010). Game theory is a powerful method for multipurpose optimization problem solving (Bond, et al., 2016). In a competitive situation, optimum result is a set of mutual strategies of players that each player achieves to best amounts against his(her) rival s strategy (Nash, 1951). Also at cooperative games, the common aim is to maximizing the total benefits and approaching to Pareto optimum, as much as possible (Rao, 1987; Damme, 2015). In this study, competition between Farmer (economic) and environmental concerns analyzed by game theory. The interrelationships between Farmer s economic goals and environmental concerns analyzed at both cooperative and competitive games framework and the results of two methods has been compared. A part of agricultural lands at Urmia lake basin is selected as case study. As the results, the individual desirability for economic purposes, is greater then it s amount at cooperation situations. However, always the total benefits of all players in cooperative game is greater than competitive amount (Rao, 1987). However, often-individual purpose of each player is more important than total benefit for all players. Therefore, competitive game condition is preferred to cooperative games (Hardin, 1994). Also in this research, as the general conditions, the farmer s individual economic interests, has influences on ecologic balances. Therefore in water resources analyzing, to overcome environmental concerns, along with water demands of crops, it s economic efficiency is also have a critical role to acceptance by the farmers.

Keywords:

Game theory , cooperative game , competitive game , Nash equilibrium , Pareto optimum ,