Assessment of water resource security in karst area of Guizhou Province, China

This paper presents the assessment of water resource security in the Guizhou karst area, China. A mean impact value and back-propagation (MIV-BP) neural network was used to understand the influencing factors. Thirty-one indices involving five aspects, the water quality subsystem, water quantity subsystem, engineering water shortage subsystem, water resource vulnerability subsystem, and water resource carrying capacity subsystem, were selected to establish an evaluation index of water resource security. In addition, a genetic algorithm and back-propagation (GA-BP) neural network was constructed to assess the water resource security of Guizhou Province from 2001 to 2015. The results show that water resource security in Guizhou was at a moderate warning level from 2001 to 2006 and a critical safety level from 2007 to 2015, except in 2011 when a moderate warning level was reached. For protection and management of water resources in a karst area, the modes of development and utilization of water resources must be thoroughly understood, along with the impact of engineering water shortage. These results are a meaningful contribution to regional ecological restoration and socio-economic development and can promote better practices for future planning.

Water resource security evaluation of the Yangtze River Economic Belt

To reasonably evaluate the water resource security state, this research built a water resource security evaluation index system of the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) based on the driving force-pressure-state-impact (DPSI) concept framework, established a water resource security evaluation model by combining the entropy weight method with the fuzzy set pair analysis method and conducted quantitative evaluations of the water resource security states from 2008 to 2016. All the work above was based on the comprehensive consideration of the water resource characteristics in different areas of the YREB, following the index system construction principles. The results have shown that on the whole, the water resource security state of the YREB has generally undergone a process from getting worse to getting better in the latest nine years. From the aspect of the percentages of the water resource security grades, the spatial distribution of water resource security in the YREB is highest in the downstream area, second in the middle reaches, and lowest in the upper reaches. From the aspect of the DPSI security evaluation results, the driving force and state of the water resource are the important factors affecting the water resource security of the YREB.

Dynamic Analysis of the Coupling Coordination Relationship between Urbanization and Water Resource Security and Its Obstacle Factor

Water resource security is an important condition for socio-economic development. Recently, the process of urbanization brings increasing pressures on water resources. Thus, a good understanding of harmonious development of urbanization and water resource security (WRS) systems is necessary. This paper examined the coordination state between urbanization and WRS and its obstacle factors in Beijing city, utilizing the improved coupling coordination degree (ICCD) model, obstacle degree model, and indicator data from 2008 to 2017. Results indicated that: (1) The coupling coordination degree between WRS and urbanization displayed an overall upward tendency during the 2008–2017 period; the coupling coordination state has changed from an imbalanced state into a good coordination state, experiencing from a high-speed development stage (2008–2010), through a steady growth stage (2010–2014), towards a low-speed growth (2014–2017). (2) In urbanization system, both the social and spatial urbanizations have the greatest obstruction to the development of urbanization-WRS system. The subsystems of pressure and state are the domain obstacle subsystems in WRS system. These results can provide important support for urban planning and water resource protection in the future, and hold great significance for urban sustainable development.

Mapping the Distribution of Water Resource Security in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region at the County Level under a Changing Context

The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (Jingjinji) region is the most densely populated region in China and suffers from severe water resource shortage, with considerable water-related issues emerging under a changing context such as construction of water diversion projects (WDP), regional synergistic development, and climate change. To this end, this paper develops a framework to examine the water resource security for 200 counties in the Jingjinji region under these changes. Thus, county-level water resource security is assessed in terms of the long-term annual mean and selected typical years (i.e., dry, normal, and wet years), with and without the WDP, and under the current and projected future (i.e., regional synergistic development and climate change). The outcomes of such scenarios are assessed based on two water-crowding indicators, two use-to-availability indicators, and one composite indicator. Results indicate first that the water resources are distributed unevenly, relatively more abundant in the northeastern counties and extremely limited in the other counties. The water resources are very limited at the regional level, with the water availability per capita and per unit gross domestic product (GDP) being only 279/290 m3 and 46/18 m3 in the current and projected future scenarios, respectively, even when considering the WDP. Second, the population carrying capacity is currently the dominant influence, while economic development will be the controlling factor in the future for most middle and southern counties. This suggests that significant improvement in water-saving technologies, vigorous replacement of industries from high to low water consumption, as well as water from other supplies for large-scale applications are greatly needed. Third, the research identifies those counties most at risk to water scarcity and shows that most of them can be greatly relieved after supplementation by the planned WDP. Finally, more attention should be paid to the southern counties because their water resources are not only limited but also much more sensitive and vulnerable to climate change. This work should benefit water resource management and allocation decisions in the Jingjinji region, and the proposed assessment framework can be applied to other similar problems.

Influencing Indicators and Quantitative Assessment of Water Resources Security in Karst Region Based on PSER Model—The Case of Guizhou

An important basis to achieve a sustainable balance between water availability and demand is effectively identifying the factors affecting water resource security and evaluating the effectiveness of existing water resource management measures. To reasonably evaluate water resource security in Guizhou Province, this study combined the water resource security features, selected the indicator system based on the Press–Status–Effect–Response (PSER) framework, and used Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to an Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) and grey correlation analysis for the province from 2001 to 2015. This allowed us to identify the main driving factors affecting water resource security. The results showed that: (1) Water resource security in Guizhou Province showed an overall trend of improvement from 2001 to 2015 and reached a maximum index of 0.57 in 2015. This amelioration in water security was mainly due to the continuous improvement of the response and effect subgroup as a result of improvements in its existing subgroup factors (policies), such as water consumption per unit of gross domestic product (GDP), the proportion of water conservancy investment, and the proportion of the tertiary industry. Increased water stress due to rapid economic development, such as water supply for the reservoir, and the instability of the status subgroup, were the main factors negatively affecting water resource security. (2) Reduction of water consumption per USD of industrial value added, the control force of water and soil erosion being strengthened, and investment in water resources being increased, are the key factors for achieving water resource security in Guizhou during this period of rapid social and economic development. This indicates that the existing water resource management measures have been improving water resource security. The management measures need to be further improved in the future to protect water resource.

Evaluating Water Resource Accessibility in Southwest China

The accessibility, quantity, and quality of water resources are the basic requirements for guaranteeing water resource security. Research into regional water resource accessibility will contribute to improving regional water resource security and effective water resource management. In this study, we used a water resource accessibility index model considering five spatial factors to evaluate the grid-scale water resource accessibility and constructed the spatial pattern of water resource accessibility in Southwest China. Then, we analyzed the coupling coordination degree between county-level water resource accessibility and eco-socio-economic water demand elements. The water resource accessibility showed obvious regional differences, and the overall trend gradually decreased from Southeast to Northwest. The coupling coordination degree between county-level water resource accessibility and eco-socio-economic water demand elements was between 0.26 and 0.84, and was relatively low overall, whereas the counties (districts) with high coordination, moderate coordination, low coordination, reluctant coordination, and incoordination accounted for 0.92%, 5.31%, 21.06%, 59.71%, and 13.00% of total counties (districts), respectively. Therefore, the Southwest region needs to further strengthen the construction of its agricultural irrigation facilities, protect the water resources, and coordinate the relationship between water resource management and water demand elements to comprehensively guarantee regional sustainable development.

Retraction: Liu, L., et al. Evaluation of Water Resource Security Based on an MIV-BP Model in a Karst Area. Water 2018, 10, 786

The Water Editorial Office has been made aware that the published paper [1] has a significant overlap with a previously published manuscript from the same authors, submitted to a Chinese journal.[...]