Water Footprint Allocation under Equity and Efficiency Considerations: A Case Study of the Yangtze River Economic Belt in China

A factorial-based dynamic distributive model for virtual-water management in multi-urban agglomerations - A case study of Yangtze River Economic Belt

The economic development, population growth and rapid urbanization in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) have resulted in an imbalance between socio-economic development and available water resources of adjacent urban agglomerations. Exploring the virtual water flow (VWF) of adjacent urban agglomerations in YREB is crucial for the collaborative management of water resources. In this study, a factorial-based dynamic distributive model (FDDM) is first developed to analyze the variations in virtual water transfers and inter/inner-sectoral relationships within multi-urban agglomerations, and expound the spatiotemporal diffusion effects of multiple water policy alternatives (and their combinations) for virtual water. The FDDM is applied in YREB's urban agglomerations covering Yangtze River Delta (YRDA), Middle Reach of Yangtze River (MRA) and Chengyu Urban Agglomeration (CYA). The FDDM is capable of i) quantifying the dynamic evolution of direct/indirect virtual water volume and virtual water transfer direction/path between and within urban agglomerations; ii) demonstrating the spatiotemporal changes of the control/dependent relationship within sectors in sub-urban agglomerations, as well as the evolution of utility relationship within the system; iii) evaluating the interactions of different water policies (and their combinations) within each sub-urban agglomeration/key sectors on the direct and indirect virtual water consumption of the system. Our major findings are: (i) YRDA always has the largest direct and indirect water consumption as well as the water consumption intensities from 2007 to 2017; (ii) The three national urban agglomerations have evolved in the direction of benign development; (iii) the interactions between YRDA and MRA, YRDA_FLF (sector of farming, forest, livestock, and fishery in YRDA) and MRA_FTO (sector of food and tobacco processing in MRA) on VWF are obvious. These results will provide a new insight for balancing urban agglomeration development and water resource utilization in YREB.

Development of multidimensional water poverty in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, China

As a basic natural and strategic resource, water is of great significance to the sustainable development of economies and societies. Owing to population growth, industrialization, the acceleration of urbanization, and global warming, water poverty is gradually increasing in some parts of the world. Effectively assessing water poverty from different dimensions is still a serious challenge for global water resources planning. This paper establishes a framework of multidimensional water poverty (MWP) from six dimensions: water management, water technology, water assets, water welfare, water resources, and water environment. The measurement model of MWP is built based on the Back Propagation Neural Network (BPNN), and the Spatial Correlation Analysis tool is used to visualize the spatial effects of MWP. The Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) was used as a case study and the main factors affecting the MWP of the YREB were determined by the Geodetector. When analyzing the results the following observations were made: (1) In terms of time distribution, the level of MWP in the YREB has gradually increased, and the poverty gap between the upper reaches, as well as the middle and lower reaches, shows an increasing trend. (2) With respect to spatial distribution, there is a continuously increasing agglomeration effect that shows a gradient-increasing distribution pattern of "West-Central-East." (3) The MWP in the YREB is mainly affected by these indicators in the three dimensions consisting of water resources, water technology, and water management. Specifically, R&D expenditure as a percentage of GDP, the proportion of water-saving irrigation area in the cultivable land area, the urban daily wastewater treatment capacity, the land surface water resources per capita, and the groundwater resources per capita play an important role in the MWP. Based on the above findings, targeted policy recommendations are proposed to alleviate the MWP in the YREB.

Identifying the decoupling pathways of water resource liability and economic growth: a case study of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, China

Identifying the high-quality economic growth pathways under the requirements of water conservation and water pollution reduction is pivotal to realize regional sustainable development. Combined with the theory of resource and environmental value, sustainable development, and environmental accounting, this paper innovatively introduces water resource liability (WRL) to measure water environmental pressure. This study takes the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) as the research area and firstly conducts a spatial-temporal analysis of the WRL change in this region from 2013 to 2018. Then, the Tapio decoupling model is used to analyze the decoupling states and the decoupling stabilities between WRL and economic growth in the 11 provincial areas and 3 sub-regions of the YREB. Finally, the main internal factors affecting the decoupling states are identified from the perspective of decoupling decomposition. The main results show that: (1) The WRL of the YREB increases from 173.36 billion CNY in 2013 to 201.62 billion CNY in 2018, with an increase of 16.3%, showing an upward trend of fluctuation. The WRL of the lower reaches of the YREB is generally higher than those of the upper and middle reaches of the YREB from both the provincial and sub-regional levels. Chongqing has the lowest WRL with an average value of 7.03 billion CNY, while Shanghai has the highest with the average of 28.74 billion CNY. (2) The decoupling state between WRL and economic growth in the YREB is generally stable. The decoupling state of the downstream is better than that of the upper and middle reaches, and the decoupling stability index is 0.59, which is the most stable. (3) The internal influencing factors between WRL and economic development in the YREB include structural effect, technological effect, and silence effect, among which technological effect with the worst decoupling stability is the main driving factor. The findings of this study are crucial for policy makers to formulate targeted policies to decouple WRL from economic growth and to realize sustainable development in the YREB.

Impacts of Precipitation and Temperature on Changes in the Terrestrial Ecosystem Pattern in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, China

The terrestrial ecosystem plays an important role in maintaining an ecological balance, protecting the ecological environment, and promoting the sustainable development of human beings. The impacts of precipitation, temperature, and other natural factors on terrestrial ecosystem pattern change (TEPC) are the basis for promoting the healthy development of the terrestrial ecosystem. This paper took the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) as the study area, analyzed the temporal and spatial characteristics of TEPC from 1995 to 2015, and used spatial transfer matrix and terrestrial ecosystem pattern dynamic degree models to analyze the area transformation between different terrestrial ecosystem types. A bivariate spatial autocorrelation model and a panel data regression model were used to study the impacts of precipitation and temperature on TEPC. The results show that: (1) The basic pattern of the terrestrial ecosystem developed in a relatively stable manner from 1995 to 2005 in the YREB, and transformations between the farmland ecosystem, forest ecosystem, and grassland ecosystem were more frequent. The temporal and spatial evolution of precipitation and temperature in the YREB showed significant regional differences. (2) There was a significant negative bivariate global spatial autocorrelation effect of precipitation and temperature on the area change of the forest ecosystem, and a positive effect on the area change of the settlement ecosystem. The local spatial correlation between precipitation or temperature and the terrestrial ecosystem showed significant scattered distribution characteristics. (3) The impacts of precipitation and temperature on TEPC showed significant regional characteristics on the provincial scale. The impact utility in the tail region is basically negative, while both positive and negative effects exist in the central and head regions of the YREB. Moreover, the impact showed significant spatial heterogeneity on the city scale. (4) The Chinese government has promulgated policies and measures for strategic planning, ecological environment protection, and economic support, which could effectively promote ecological and sustainable development of the YREB and promote the coordinated development of the ecology, economy, and society in China.