Salt lakes are numerous and have signifi cant economical, ecological, recreational, and cultural values. Raising the awareness about salt lakes, nature of threats, impacts from human activities, and their special management requirements is one of the biggest challenges. Many salt lakes are likely to dry and unfortunately international bodies have not properly recognized salt lakes as important aquatic ecosystems. The aim of this paper is to provide a global awareness about drying of salt lakes and their environmental impacts. The case study is Orumieh Lake, one of the largest salt lakes on the earth. The catchment area of the lake contains 21 permanent and ephemeral streams together with 39 episodic rivers fl owing through agricultural, urban, and industrial areas that drain into this terminal lake. Drying of this lake would lead to salty winds, diseases, and cancers that would evacuate more than 20 cities. Beside effective management and conservation measures, international pressure from appropriate organizations would be effective for the conservation of many salt lakes.

The impacts of climate change on arid regions such as Iran are unavoidable, with agriculture and water being the most vulnerable sectors. Although the development of adaptation policies is crucial, the first step to this task should be to assess ongoing policies. The present study evaluates four macro-level documents that have the strongest effects on water and agricultural policies in Iran from the perspective of adaptation to climate change. Two frameworks have been applied to evaluate the "integrity" and "maladaptation" aspects of the documents. It was found that the themes most often considered in the documents were 'improving resiliency and adaptive capacity' and "responding to changes in water availability." The least-considered themes were 'responding to increased irrigation requirements' and 'responding to changes in agricultural land use.' In general, the Sixth Five-Year Development Plan shows acceptable accordance with the evaluated criteria. However, potential concerns exist about maladaptation because of policies such as self-sufficiency for strategic crops and excessive reliance on improving irrigation efficiency to reduce agricultural water consumption. The methodology used in this study can be recommended for similar studies elsewhere. K E Y W O R D S adaption, agricultural water, evaluation, government, impact, policy RĖSUMĖ Les impacts du changement climatique sur les régions arides comme l'Iran sont inévitables, l'agriculture et l'eau étant les secteurs les plus vulnérables. Bien que l'élaboration de politiques d'adaptation soit cruciale, la première étape de cette tâche devrait être d'évaluer les politiques en cours. La présente étude évalue quatre documents de niveau macro qui ont les effets les plus importants sur les politiques de l'eau et de l'agriculture en Iran du point de vue de l'adaptation au changement climatique. Deux cadres ont été The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. * Eau et politiques agricoles dans les documents Iraniens au niveau macro de la perspective de l'adaptation au changement climatique.

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