Exploring effective policies for underground water management in artificial oasis: a system dynamics analysis of a...

The development of oasis along the edge of the Tengerli Desert, where underground water is available, is one of the major strategies to reallocate "ecological refuges" from their seriously degraded grasslands to agriculturally cultivable land. Yet, underground water resources, the major constraint, have not been fully integrated in the development process. Therefore, the decline of water resources and deterioration of water quality caused by over-consumption of water resources has begun to hinder further development and has even led to the abandonment of some oasis. A system dynamics modeling approach is applied to analyze the water use and water management structures in Yaoba Oasis as a case study. The study attempts to identify the characteristics of major feedback loops, which dominate the over-use of underground water resources leading to the deterioration of water resources in quantity and quality.