In the endorheic basins of the Iranian plateau, water is the most important factor in forming topography and limiting the capacity of production. In long term, interruption and blockage in the flow of surface and ground water in these basins likely leads to desertification. During the recent decades, water resources and consumption indices have reached critical levels. The solution of water crisis should be searched in the land governance process. Nowadays, sustainable development of water resources is tied with critical methodology and resilience concept. The method of this research is based on analysis, criticism, and inference of the relative literature. The study aims to identify the opportunities and challenges in water resources management of the Iranian plateau and to formulate its resilience-related strategies. The land use planning in our country is not matched with social and ecological properties of the Iranian plateau. The foundations of land uses in the Iranian hydrocratic civilization is based on opportunities such as structural heterogeneity of the land, spatio-temporal dimensions of the resource accessibility, topological and chorological relationships in the land, and dependence on the groundwater instead of surface water which results in a metastability statement of the environment. Therefore, land capacity in the plateau is beyond the capacity suggested by the conventional assessing methods. The resiliency of this unity needs to identify and assess the land at different hierarchical scales, including macro scale (basin), meso scale (elevation belts), and micro scale (ecosystem). In these circumstances, organization, restoration, and protection of critical networks and natural infrastructures of the land is possible with the cautionary approach and continuous monitoring of changes. Cultural characteristics, the sense of belonging to the land, ethics and innovation should be considered as the foundations for the utilization of our land. Furthermore, institutional reforms are essential in order to solve the problems of water resources bureaucratic system, including reducing authorities of the central government and moving towards the public participation, consensus orientation, meritocracy, and transparency in policy-making, responsibility, cost effectiveness, justice, and legitimacy
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