Environmental, Social, and Economic Impacts of Modern Irrigation and Drainage Networks in Korbal Plain and Their Determinants as Perceived by Beneficiaries

Development projects, along with their positive impacts, have some direct and indirect impacts on natural and social environment that are potentially negative. There may be some undesired consequences if provisions are not foreseen for mitigating the negative impacts and reinforcing the positive ones. Environmental, social, and economic impacts assessment of irrigation and drainage network projects in Korbal plain based on its beneficiaries’ view point was the main objective of this study. Research method was descriptive; non-experimental toward variables controlling; applied toward its object and the data was collected by survey technique. The statistical population of this study included all of the beneficiaries who were farming the modern irrigation and drainage network in Korbal plain, in Fars province. Totally, 280 beneficiaries were selected as sample groups. A questionnaire was used for data collection and its validity was approved by a panel of specialists and its reliability was examined by conducting a pilot study. Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was about 0.79. Findings revealed that most of the beneficiaries believed that the project had relatively desirable environmental, social, and economic impacts. Among four groups of personal, economic, social, and situational determinants, two groups of personal and social determinants had more effect on beneficiaries’ impact assessment. Besides, regression analysis revealed  that four groups of attitudinal variables had the highest effect on beneficiaries’ assessment toward the three types of impacts. Some recommendations are presented at the end of the article in order to improve implementation and benefits of such projects.