| Authors | Seyed Hamidreza Sadeghi-Negin Behnia-Reza Chamani-Vahid Moosavi-Ali Nasiri Khiavi-Mohammad Hossein Shoushtari-Hamid Nouri-Padidehsadat Sadeghi-Mahin Kalehouei-Sudabeh Gharemahmudli-Mohammd Tavosi-Mostafa Zabihi Silabi-Abdulvahed Khaledi Darvishan-Mehdi Va |
|---|---|
| Journal | Ecological Indicators |
| Paper Type | Full Paper |
| Published At | 2026 |
| Journal Grade | ISI |
| Journal Type | Typographic |
| Journal Country | Iran, Islamic Republic Of |
Abstract
Watershed health has yet to be considered across scales, particularly at the national level, for effective resource
management. However, such an important endeavor is lacking for degrading environments worldwide at high
resolution. This study, therefore, addresses the research gap in national-scale watershed health (WH) and
ecological security (ES) assessments for 640 3rd-order watersheds (approximately 253,521.4 ± 226,998.4 ha) in
Iran. Following the Pressure-State-Response (PSR) framework, 527 nationwide, up-to-date, and accessible variables
were initially selected. These were subsequently reduced to 111 non-collinear predictors using the Variance
Inflation Factor (VIF) method. The methodology integrated geospatial, climatic, hydrological, and
anthropogenic data across Iran's watersheds. The results of compiling different determinants and performing
time-consuming, tedious calculations reported means of 0.47 ± 0.02 and 0.25 ± 0.05 for WH and ES across Iran,
respectively. Crucially, WH disproportionately depends on institutional responses (64.36 %), overshadowing
entrenched pressures (20.32 %) and critically fragile ecological states (15.32 %). The findings indicate that most
watersheds in Iran exhibit moderate WH but are trending toward degradation, reflecting increasing environmental
pressure and declining ES. The analysis highlights that climatic and anthropogenic factors, particularly
rising temperatures, land-use changes, and hydrological disturbances, are the primary drivers of this decline.
Widespread degradation underscores the urgent need for integrated watershed management, nature-based
measures, climate-adaptive strategies, and transformative governance to mitigate the decline in WH and ES in
Iran.