Introduction
Human societies are facing increasingly severe water-related challenges, including droughts, sudden floods, groundwater depletion, land subsidence, and environmental degradation. These challenges are exacerbated by climate change, rapid population growth, and unsustainable water consumption patterns. Traditional water management approaches often rely on sectoral interventions and overlook the systemic feedback loops that perpetuate water-related problems, thereby contributing to policy failures. Achieving sustainable water resources management therefore requires integrated, interdisciplinary frameworks that account for the complex interactions between human and hydrological systems and ensure stakeholder participation in decision-making.
Objective
This study aims to systematically review and analyze the role of integrating water accounting and systems thinking in strengthening sustainable water resources governance. Specifically, it examines how this integration enhances transparency, institutional accountability, intersectoral coordination, and policy effectiveness in water allocation and management.
Research Method
This research employed a systematic review methodology to analyze studies published over the past two decades in reputable scientific databases. The content analysis focused on water accounting applications, systems thinking frameworks, dynamic system modeling, and integrated governance approaches.
Results and Discussion
The findings indicate that water accounting provides structured quantitative data on water flows, stocks, consumption, and economic value across sectors, thereby forming the informational foundation for system modeling. Systems thinking complements this approach by analyzing causal relationships, feedback loops, and time delays, thus facilitating adaptive and long-term decision-making. Integrated approaches improve transparency, stakeholder participation, institutional accountability, and the efficiency of water policies. International case studies from Australia, Spain, and the Netherlands demonstrate that such integration enables scenario-based evaluation of social and environmental impacts, identifies leverage points, and supports evidence-based adaptive governance. However, challenges remain, including limited high-quality data, the absence of standardized indicators, differences in temporal and spatial scales, and weak interdisciplinary collaboration.
Conclusion
Integrating water accounting and systems thinking provides a comprehensive framework for understanding and managing human-water systems. This approach supports evidence-based, long-term, and adaptive policymaking, improves transparency and accountability, and enhances institutional coordination. For future research and practice, developing localized models, standardizing key indicators, leveraging emerging technologies such as remote sensing and AI, and strengthening multilevel governance frameworks are recommended to achieve resilient and sustainable water resources management in Iran and similar contexts.