EVALUATION OF RURAL SOCIAL CAPITAL IN THE PROTECTION AND RESTORATION OF LAKE URMIA

Abstract

Lake Urmia is the largest lake in the Middle East and the sixth-largest saltwater lake on Earth, with a surface area of
approximately 5,200 km2. This lake is experiencing severe drought from 2000 onward due to persistent general drought
in Iran, but also the damming of the local rivers that flow into it, and the pumping of groundwater from the surrounding
area. This study investigates the social capital of the Urmia basin's rural community in the protection and restoration of
this water body. The method of the study was descriptive statistics in which a total number of 415 questionnaires were
distributed among the rural residents. The main focus of this survey was evaluating the people's perception of the
relationship between economic growth and environmental protection and assessing their sense of belonging to the
lakes. For this purpose, measures of central tendency including the mean, median, and mode, and measures of variability
including standard deviation, variance, minimum and maximum variables, kurtosis, and skewness were analyzed. The
results of this study show that the people's perception of the significance of conservational measures at lake Urmia is at
the medium level, which means more environmental promotional programs need to be undertaken. In addition, The
resident's sense of belonging to lake Urmia is at the medium level, which proves the people are not fully aware of the
various ecosystem services provided by the lake.