A Step towards Building Environmental Protection Strategy: Game Theory Framework for Al-Abrash River Basin Management

The current random behavior of stakeholders within the Al-Abrash river basin in Syrian coastal region, the lake and the river, threatens more than ever to pollute the whole basin. The goal of this paper is to address the state of shared management of water resources among local players through game theory application based on two self-interest strategies for each player to reach a balance point taking into consideration the government intervention as the organizer of the game. Therefore, non-cooperative game theory NCGT adopted as an analytical approach for modeling planning assets conflicts. ArcGIS software adopted to define different areas according to its risk/land-use types. The result shows that the equilibrium point "non-cooperate-non-cooperate" strategy between the players could lean towards "cooperative-cooperative" strategy in the light of the provincial government effect, adopting innovating competitive planning policies. That will lead to an interactive economical-environmental balance in the river basin and helps to reach rational decisions. Therefore, this paper could be classified as one of the studies seeking to apply the participatory planning approach toward sustainable development. Index Terms-Al-Abrash river basin, environmental protection strategy, game theory, participatory approach.