An Improved Ecological Footprint Method for Water Resources Utilization Assessment in the Cities

Abstract

Economic development and increasing population density along the lower reaches of the Yellow river have challenged the river’s ability to meet human and ecological demand. The evaluation of the sustainability of water resources in the lower reaches of the Yellow River is of great significance for the achievement of high-quality development in the region. Based on an improved ecological footprint method considering soil water, the spatial and temporal evolution of the water resources ecological footprint and water resources carrying capacity and evaluates the utilization of water resources in the lower Yellow River are comprehensively evaluated. The results show that agricultural water consumption in the urban agglomerations in the lower reaches of the Yellow River occupies a major position in water consumption, accounting for more than 70%. In 2013–2017, the per capita water resources ecological footprint of the cities along the lower reaches of the Yellow River decreases every year, while the water resources carrying capacity is slightly fluctuating, but remains in a relatively stable state. The deficit situation has eased, falling by 54.52% in the past five years. The water use efficiency of the lower reaches of the Yellow River has increased every year, and the water resources conflict improved significantly, after the implementation of the new environmental policy in 2015. In terms of space, the cities with the smallest per capita ecological deficits include Zibo, Zhengzhou, and Laiwu City, and Dezhou, and Kaifeng and Binzhou City have the largest. Strict water resources management measures and water pollution prevention and control regulations should be formulated to improve the water use efficiency in these areas in order to solve the problem of water shortage.

Green water resource utilization efficiency in urban agglomerations: measurement, spatiotemporal variations and influencing factors

“…The water resources ecological footprint (i.e., water volume ecological footprint) refers to water resource consumption by human beings for production and life (Wang and Liu 2019), and the total water resource ecological footprint in the region was selected as the water resource input, excluding the water quality ecological footprint. The water resource ecological footprint in the region was calculated by using the research method of Li et al (2020). Due to space limitations, the detailed calculation method is not repeated here.…”

Assessment of the Sustainable Utilization Level of Water Resources in the Wuhan Metropolitan Area Based on a Three-Dimensional Water Ecological Footprint Model

“…For instance, Wang et al calculated the per capita WEF and WECC and analyzed the water resources ecological pressure index to assess the sustainable utilization level of water resources in Hubei, China [25]. Li et al comprehensively evaluated the utilization of water resources and the spatial and temporal evolution of WEF and WECC in the lower Yellow River [26]. Su et al calculated WEF and WECC of four urban areas in China and suggested that adjusting industrial structure and repairing the inequality of water resources can promote the sustainable development of social economy [27].…”

“…Therefore, we took the Wuhan Metropolitan Area, a typical metropolitan area in central China, as the research object to achieve the following research aims: (1) construct a three-dimensional WEF model; (2) construct an evaluation index system for the regional sustainable utilization level of water resources based on the model; (3) analyze the factors influencing the change in WEF using the LMDI. This research would help to improve and supplement the theoretical system of sustainable water resources development by constructing a three-dimensional WEF model and introducing two indicators of NCF and NCS [25][26][27]. In addition, we provide references for government policies and plans in the metropolitan area development, water resources allocation and dispatching and industrial structure adjustment by analyzing the contribution of WEF intensity, economic development, population pressure and WECC to the change in WEF based on LMDI.…”

Bibliometric analysis of water footprint research in countries of former Yugoslavia

“…Also, other environmental footprint methodologies (Vanham et al, 2019) try to find a way to involve the water issues into their own methodology (Li et al, 2020;Wang et al, 2020). Currently, the water ecological footprint is described in the literature (Hu et al, 2008;Liu et al, 2018).…”