The meeting of Underground Water Resources Future and Subsidence in Iran was held by the Division of Civil Engineering of the Department of Engineering Sciences of the Academy on January 10 at Ibn Sina Hall of the Academy.

The attendees included 180 experts from the fields related to subsidence and underground water, including geotechnics, geology, hydrogeology, subsidence, social sciences, water engineering, agricultural engineering and irrigation and drainage.

The meeting began with Prof. Jafar Towfighi and Prof. Reza Maknoon’s welcome words. Then, Eng. Gholam Ali Shah Hosseini, deputy of the Water Information and Data Office of Iran Water Resources Management Company, explained the general picture of the country's water and the latest quantitative and qualitative situation and water withdrawal from the country's underground water resources. Then, Prof. Bahman Yargholi, faculty member of Agricultural Engineering Research Institute, described the major qualitative challenges of the country's underground water resources.

Prof. Masoume Amighpey and Prof. Reza Shahbazi devoted the second part of the meeting to the review of the latest state of subsidence zones in the country.

In the third part of the meeting, Eng. Javad Hajiani Bushehri, Deputy Advisor for Planning and Economic Affairs of the Minister of Energy, discussed the state of the government's latest efforts and the necessity of changes in the government's interventions to balance the underground water resources. Prof. Kamran Davari, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, expounded on the challenges of balancing underground water resources, focusing on legislative aspects and social capacities.

In the discussion and exchange of views with the audience, various issues, particularly those related to social opportunities and challenges in the field of balancing underground water resources, were raised. It was decided to form a workgroup to summarize the issues raised in the meeting and prepare policy outputs.