Ferdowsi Civil Engineering

Ferdowsi Civil Engineering

ANALYSIS OF TRAGEDY OF THE COMMONS THEORY BASED ON THE CONCEPT OF WATER RESOURCES CARRYING CAPACITY

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
mohammadreza Goodarzi
Atiyeh Fatehifar
Ali Talebi
Department of Civil Engineering, Water Resources Management Engineering, Yazd University, Yazd, Iran.
10.22067/jfcei.2026.96795.1390
Abstract
Unsustainable water resource management, especially in stressed basins, is a concrete example of the tragedy of the commons, where prioritizing short-term economics pushes the performance of natural systems to breaking points. The emergence of competition from this development creates irreversible conditions for water resources in the long term. The Zayandeh-Rud basin serves as a common-pool resource for stakeholder competition and water reallocation. Therefore, in this study, with a theoretical–quantitative approach the flow change process was first analyzed, then the dynamic competition and exploitation in the Zayandeh-Rud basin was simulated using the WEAP model. In the final step, the socio-ecological status of the basin was assessed using the Water Ecological Carrying Capacity Index (WECCI) framework and Hardin's perspective in the form of the Pressure-Support-Status (PSS) structure. The results on an annual scale and in three five-year periods (2006-2010), (2011-2015) and (2016-2021) show that the balance between pressure and support has gradually deteriorated in the three time periods and has changed from a carrying capacity state to an overload state (increasing from 0.3 to 1.1 and then 3.8). At the same time, the WECCI has fallen to the “poor” and “extremely poor” range in most years. The results indicate that in recent years, especially with the increase in abstractions and the growth of demand, the basin has exceeded its natural and social capacity and has revealed the occurrence of a tragedy of the common resources.
Keywords
Future of commons
Water reallocation
Zayandeh-Rud basin
WEAP
PSS
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