Comparison of bankruptcy methods in the operation management of the Karkheh River Basin to allocate more water to the Hawr-Al-Azim Wetland

Bankruptcy methods are straightforward practical methods to address the problem of allocating limited sources of water to different users in regions where claims exceed assets. In the present study, three levels of restoration for the Hawr-Al-Azim wetland (35, 50, and 100%) and two agricultural-related scenarios, maintaining the current cultivation area and decreasing the area under cultivation, were considered and assessed using classical bankruptcy methods. The results showed that, because of climatic conditions and agricultural demands, full wetland restoration was out of reach and led to minimum satisfaction levels for agricultural beneficiaries. The results also showed that the modified bankruptcy method led to the highest satisfaction levels for beneficiaries in the scenario of maintaining the current cultivation area. In addition, the percentage of the water supply was increased by applying the scenario of crop restriction in the conditions of the full restoration of the wetland; for example, in the Abbas Plain region, this increase was achieved by almost 10–15% in all methods. On the other hand, decreasing the area under cultivation shifted the allocation problem in the basin to a non-bankruptcy one.