G!ren OnGen COeneG,7.00.6.0..3.0102 nene entG FGPeen COenentGB eerG r GerGU yG detneeneG 7th ASAE Conference, Hanoi Year: 2011 Prioritize the use of Kashmar plain agricultural lands by Gusing multi criteria programming (VIKOR) Somayeh Shirzadi Laskookalayeh1 , Mahmood Sabouhi Sabuni*2 Abstract The drought Phenomena and its consequences reduce the level of groundwater, lack proper nutrition, dry surface water resources and more harvest of the groundwater resources substantially the sum of these cases is Cause transfer the salty waters to ground water table and will limit capacity required harvest from aquifer and quality of the water. The VIKOR method was applied to determine the best feasible solution according to the selected criteria including the region rainfall situation during different years, soil permeability, land slope and water quality indicators, including SAR, RSC, salinity for determine of groundwater resources quality and land- use restrictions in Kashmar plain in east-north of Iran. The results of sampling in the Kashmar Plains showed that water quality decreased in move path from north to south the groundwater table of Kashmar plains. The use of groundwater resource excessively, downfall of the groundwater level and followed to salinity increased, has been caused to decrease of agriculture water quality and the land- use restriction. Furthermore, the results of the model in years 2008 and 2010 showed that to continue the current form indiscriminate harvesting of groundwater resource due to is the advancing front of salinity to upstream regions with low salinity. Therefore, it is necessary for sustainable management of groundwater resources, control the indiscriminate harvesting and minimizing damage to the groundwater table of the county, experts perform limits the use of agricultural land with the modified cultivated model, the use of deficit irrigation methods. Keyword: Agricultural land use, Ground water table protection, Quality, VIKOR 1 . PhD Student of Agricultural Economics Department of University of Zabol Iran. Email: [email protected] 2 . Associate Professor of Agricultural Economics Department of University of Zabol Iran. Email: [email protected] G!ren OnGen COeneG,7.00.6.0..3.0102 nene entG FGPeen COenentGB eerG r GerGU yG detneeneG Introduction The 90 percent of agricultural water use is devoted to the world (Rahman et al, 2004). This figure is in Iran's 93 to 94 percent (http://ict.moe.org.ir, 2004). Due to climatic conditions, rainfall distribution, the slope of the land, location and position of Iran in the row of arid countries, water shortages are enumerated, one of the developing limiting factors in Iran. Severe restrictions and declining of water quality in one hand, population increase, urban development, agriculture, industry and increased demand for water on the other hand, these are challenges that If the inattention to its development in the country is facing with serious bottlenecks and obstacles in the near future. Hence to prevent the critical situation of water and the consequences reduce the overuse of groundwater resources in these areas, more attention to these issues seems necessary. The Kashmar county areas with a shortage of water resources are a problem region in Iran and gradually are increasing the amount of problems. This county has located in southwestern of Khorasan Razavi province and the eastern periphery of Kavir plain. Amount of rainfalls is 680 Mm3 in year That about 483 Mm3 (71%) is evaporated directly and about 156 Mm3 (23%) as surface runoff and 41 Mm3 (6%) to infiltrate the groundwater aquifers. A large variety of agricultural products is high in this county and are cultivated various products of subtropical regions and moderate (Kashmar Agricultural Jihad (KAJ, 2010). The groundwater is included dominant source of water in agriculture and the amount of water discharged is higher than the charged rate, so that the average decline in groundwater levels in the county of Kashmar is reported in more than one meter in each year (KAJ, 2010). The effective factors of ground water table charged is included the infiltration of rainfall in the basin, the surface flows of input from adjacent basins, the entrance amount of ground water, transfer water from other basins, Infiltration of flood, the return water from farms and urban and industrial wastewater that their value depends on different regions conditions of the Kashmar plains (Kashmar regional water office, 2010). In this study, about 700 hectares of agricultural land was considered plain Kashmar subsection 8 of deep wells was divided. This subsection is to change the quality of underground water resources for irrigation of lands to be harvested. For this purpose, Eight wells in the north to south along the plains were selected each of the G!ren OnGen COeneG,7.00.6.0..3.0102 nene entG FGPeen COenentGB eerG r GerGU yG detneeneG wells, land located in the north west, west, south west and south of the irrigated plains are Kashmar. These wells according to area under irrigation in the north-south direction of plains is including Kalate Khan, Haji Abad, Argha, Shoorab Noghab, Ali Abad Barkal, Gharbe Shoorab, Shargh Sad Al-din, Jafar Abad, respectively. According to source of groundwater table witch has emanated from mountains of north west of the county of Kashmar, the well is located in the Kalate Khan subdivision is well closest to the watershed that was selected as the sample source. The other wells distance to the watershed has measured to obtain water quality standards and salinity. And with sampling of water wells in this path (north to south) was investigated. The water quality, water quantity, discharge, physical and chemical changes in water, and water quality impacts on surrounding agricultural land (irrigated with water). Weather of Kashmar plain, rainfall, permeability, soil characteristics, slope and excess harvesting from the groundwater resources due to the population increasing has affected environmental quality of using natural resource and consequently, it has effected on region people life, efficiency and sustainability of water resources and agriculture. Therefore, protect of groundwater resources with application of agricultural land use restrictions is appropriate strategies that should be considered further. Accordingly, it is necessary to will be planned land use restrictions strategies ranking for various Subdivision of Kashmar watershed that emanate from the northern mountains with varying degrees of potential effects on environmental quality of groundwater sources (wells) and agricultural land. Since the investigation of destruction and potential harm to groundwater resources due to excess using of agriculture land to measure and is expressed on based of several criteria, The multi-criteria analysis method was used as technical for loss quality problem and damage to groundwater resources. The VIKOR method was used in this study, this method expand Multi-criteria optimization of complex systems to find alternative compromised ranking according to criteria selection (Opricov and Tzeng, 2003, 2004). In recent years, Multi-criteria optimization is widely used in environmental resource management (Bryan and Crossman, 2008 & Chung and Lee, 2009). In used field of multi-criteria decision methods used making (MCDM) via Vikor method have not been done many studies in agriculture. But some studies which have used the VIKOR method G!ren OnGen COeneG,7.00.6.0..3.0102 nene entG FGPeen COenentGB eerG r GerGU yG detneeneG in other research areas are included: Krystbal (2011) studied the selection of renewable energy projects in Spain using VIKOR method. In this study, was used via Analysis Hierarchical Process (AHP) for determination of weights and degree of different criteria importance. The results showed that plant biomass, according to the considered options in the model, are the best choice. Liu et al (2010), used the VIKOR modified multi- criteria decision method to improve the quality of airline passenger services to families in Taiwan and ultimately, it was expressed to improve of different programs for customer satisfaction increase. Koo and Liang (2011) studied the combined VIKOR method and analysis of Gray relationship to assess the quality of service in seven north east Asia international airports. The results showed that the method is effective and applicable to multi-criteria decision making problems and includes the unique quality traits in the fuzzy environment. Kaya and Ghahraman (2010) proposed the planning for multi-criteria renewable energy via hierarchical combined method and fuzzy VIKOR in Istanbul for the best selection and location of energy policy. Results showed that among the considered options by for creation of wind turbines, the wind energy is a renewable and important energy in Katalka in Istanbul. Sanai et al (2010), studied the group decided method to choose their supplier via fuzzy VIKOR method. In this study, the main purpose is determination of problem region ranking to achieve sustainable agriculture. the area of each irrigated agriculture region by wells have considered between 50 to 100 acres and crops products is including wheat, barley, melons, grapes, pomegranates, saffron. Groundwater samples obtained from the wells is only water supplier resource for these products. Data for the study were collected from Agricultural Jihad and regional water office of Kashmar county during the years 2008 and 2010 and Kashmar meteorological office during the years 2008 to 2010. Material and Method Multi Criteria analysis via the VIKOR method For priority determine of the agriculture problem areas there are several criteria which are conflict together, so it is preferred the determinant of one compromise solution than an optimal solution. the Vikor method is a tool applicable to multi-criteria analysis, can used by selecting and ranking from a set of alternatives the conflicting criteria in G!ren OnGen COeneG,7.00.6.0..3.0102 nene entG FGPeen COenentGB eerG r GerGU yG detneeneG recognition solution adaptive weights and criteria (Opricovic,1998., Opricovic and Tzeng, 2004., Tzeng et al, 2005., Tong et al, 2007).