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The current critical situation of natural resources in Iran resulted from overuse of these resources. In spite of performing watershed management projects during past forty years, natural resources have been degraded. In addition, enough appropriate researches have not been conducted to evaluate the effectiveness and the reasons for failure of these projects. In this research, the watershed management project in Menderjan sub-catchment of Zayandehrood basin was evaluated, from preparing and proposing to operational stages by quantitative and qualitative methods.
Basic data were collected by investigating the projects documents, direct visiting, filling out questioner, and interviewing settlers of the watershed. Finally, effective factors in operation of project were categorized in seven groups. Each of these groups was divided into subgroup factors, which were scoried by weight according to some parameters. The results showed that the situation of proposed
plan and lacks of economic assessment were the most important influencing factors in operation of project. According to the invented model, the final score calculated by the method mentioned was 29 (out of 110), which indicates weak operation for this project.