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Study of Water-Environmental Conflicts as a Dynamic and Complex Human-Natural System: A New Perspective

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Book cover Contemporary Issues in Group Decision and Negotiation (GDN 2021)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing ((LNBIP,volume 420))

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Abstract

In many parts of the world, water scarcity, climate change phenomenon, and simultaneously, increasing water demand from various stakeholders have led to serious conflicts over water and related environmental issues. These serious conflicts are lengthy in time, dynamic in nature, and very complex in essence. A key feature of this type of conflict, which is often ignored, is that in addition to the interaction among humans, the interaction between human and nature plays a significant role. In other words, such conflicts involve both human and natural systems as well as the interactions between them. Thus, they are considered as a Coupled Human and Natural System (CHANS) for which, its concepts and framework can be used to evaluate such complex conflicts. This research effort aims at presenting the CHANS approach and its core concepts for better study of the water and environmental conflicts that are both dynamic in nature and complex in essence. The use of CHANS to the conflict scrutiny provides valuable insights that help in achieving a broader understanding of water-environmental conflicts. The case study of the Urmia Lake conflict as a real-world controversy is used to show the CHANS’ capabilities in dealing with the dynamics and complexities of water and environmental conflicts and highlighting their main features. The resulting outcomes of the proposed approach clearly indicate that for achieving a more comprehensive understanding as well as more sustainable management of growing water-environmental conflicts, both human and natural dimensions and their interactions must be simultaneously considered.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

    Mohsen Shahbaznezhadfard

  2. Department of Architecture, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

    Saied Yousefi

  3. Department of Systems Design Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON, Canada

    Saied Yousefi & Keith W. Hipel

Authors
  1. Mohsen Shahbaznezhadfard
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  2. Saied Yousefi
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  3. Keith W. Hipel
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Saied Yousefi .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Recife, Brazil

    Danielle Costa Morais

  2. Ryerson University, Toronto, ON, Canada

    Liping Fang

  3. University of Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

    Masahide Horita

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Shahbaznezhadfard, M., Yousefi, S., Hipel, K.W. (2021). Study of Water-Environmental Conflicts as a Dynamic and Complex Human-Natural System: A New Perspective. In: Morais, D.C., Fang, L., Horita, M. (eds) Contemporary Issues in Group Decision and Negotiation. GDN 2021. Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, vol 420. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77208-6_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-77208-6_9

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-77208-6

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