AGRICULTURAL WATER MANAGEMENT IN ZAYANDEROOD WATERSHED: A HISTORICAL REVIEW (CASE STUDY: LENJAN REGION)

This paper, based on oral history and contemporary witnesses, demonstrates the traditional conditions and rules of allocation and management of water in a semiarid fertilized region of Isfahan province of Iran (Figure 1). Agricultural lands division, crop pattern, the methods of management and cooperation of people in irrigation, water pricing, traditional methods of water conveyance, water allocation and its monitoring, and handling the traditional irrigation networks, which are commonly in use yet, are subjects of interest in this research. Additionally, various social and environmental problems, some river engineering solutions and the changes in water usage from past to present will be mentioned. In this kind of research, we meet some traditional expression and idioms in culture of water which have been mentioned in the paper exactly. Some hidden points on these expressions show the great rule of water on the people life in past. As this culture is going ahead and exclusive in all parts of arid and semi-arid Iran, study of its roots is essential for comparing management of water in the present and the past. “History” helps us to evaluate the conditions of water usage and its effects on environment in two periods of time and articulates the past experiences of Zayandehrood alluvium and productive region of Lenjan which have met many problems in the past and present as well.