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The natural resources of Iran are faced with serious problems and threats such as climate change, droughts, water scarcity, pollution (water, soil, air), severe soil erosion, desertification, land use changes such as deforestation, and rangeland destruction, unsuitable agriculture, and unsustainable development. Identifying and prioritizing watershed problems is the most important step in implementing watershed management plans. The aim of this study is to identify and analyze the environmental problems of the Gorganrood Basin informing the main managerial responses. Therefore, the main environmental problems of the basin were identified based on previous studies, expert consultation, and field visits. Experts' opinion was elicited to prioritize problems and determine the most important managerial responses. Questionnaires with the Likert scale (very low (1), low (2), medium (3), high (4), and very high (5)) and Friedman test were also used, respectively as measuring ranking tools. Using the DPSIR (Driving forces, Pressures, States, Impacts, and Responses) approach the causes of the problems in the study areas and also the most important management actions to solve the problems have been identified. The analysis shows that in the Gorganrood Basin, four driving forces (D) including climate change, population growth, institution structure, and rules have caused some pressures (P) on the resources of the bain. These driving forces have resulted in 25 pressures (P) on the basin resources, which in turn, have also caused 10 environmental problems (S). These disturbed states led to 13 adverse impacts (I) on the life of the local communities. In order to improve these states and reduce adverse impacts, based on the cause-effect analysis using the DPSIR framework, 28 management responses (R) were suggested. The overall conclusion is that the DPSIR approach, which provides a causal framework for analyzing the environmental challenges, should be included in the detailed-executive studies of watersheds as a prerequisite to developing the operational plan.
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