The causes and impacts of water resources crises in the Pearl River Delta

Liu, Bingjun; Sihan, Peng; Liao, Yeying; Long, Weili

doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.12.203

Cited by 82 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 67 publications

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“…The eastern river delta covers 1380 km 2 and has five major waterways, with a density of 0.88 km/km 2 [13]. In recent years, the PRD's water demand has increased at an average annual rate of 1.43% [14]. According to the "Guangdong Water Resource Bulletin 2016", in 2016, the PRD area used 22.34 billion tons of water, in which industry consumed 8.41 billion tons, accounting for 37.65%, followed by agriculture (31.86%) and domestic use (18.64%) [15].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Water-Economy Nexus and Sustainable Transition of the Pearl River Delta, China (1999–2015)

Liu

et al. 2018

Sustainability

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As the world’s largest urban area in both size and population, the rapid development of the Pearl River Delta (PRD) during past three decades has been accompanied by worsening water problems. This paper examines the water-economy nexus of the PRD from the perspectives of both water use and water quality between 1999 and 2015, with a Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index decomposition model as well as an Environmental Kuznets Curve model, in order to assess the sustainable transition of the area. The results show that in this period, while the water dependency of economic development went down by a significant extent, the efficiency gains did not prevail over problems caused by economic scale expansion. However, at the city level, the 2008 financial crisis stimulated an economic transformation of the main economies from being scale-dominated to being efficiency-dominated. From 2009 to 2015, the sewage decreases driven by water dependency of Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Dongguan outweighed the sewage increases driven by economic scale. While sewage discharge increased, the river water quality of the PRD kept improving. We found an inverted “U”-shaped relationship between GDP per capita and water quality of the PRD, with GDP per capita = ¥14,228.27 as the inflection point for river water quality. Once dubbed the “factory floor” of the world, the PRD has moved into a less environmentally impactful phase of development, with more expenditure on environmental protection and policy reform. However, given the huge and ever-increasing economic and population scales, ensuring a sufficient and safe water supply through industrial recycling and public education, along with even further pollution abatement, will be particularly important.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Water-Economy Nexus and Sustainable Transition of the Pearl River Delta, China (1999–2015)

Liu

et al. 2018

Sustainability

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“…However, due to the enhancement of the tidal dynamics in the dry season after 1990s, the salt intrusion length has moved upstream by ∼40 km in the Modaomen estuary in recent years compared with that in the 1980s. Based on a long‐term survey of the daily salinity observed during the dry season in 2000–2012 at the Pinggang pumping station (water supply for Macao and Zhuhai) in the Modaomen estuary, Liu, Peng, Liao, and Long () showed that both the intensities and durations of the salt intrusion were enhanced, which negatively affected the security of the regional water supply and possibly destroyed the habitats of the estuarine environments. However, it is important to note that the tidal regime has become relatively stable in recent years, which suggests a new stage of tidal dynamics caused by the latest river discharge and geometry conditions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Based on a long-term survey of the daily salinity observed during the dry season in 2000-2012 at FIGURE 12 Observed residual water level slope as a function of the river discharge for different periods. The black and red lines indicate the linear trend of tidal range for the pre-1992 period (a) and for the post-1992 period (b), respectively Liu, Peng, Liao, and Long (2018) showed that both the intensities and durations of the salt intrusion were enhanced, which negatively affected the security of the regional water supply and possibly destroyed the habitats of the estuarine environments.…”

Section: Implications For Estuarine Water Management In the Prdmentioning

confidence: 99%

Decadal variability of tidal dynamics in the Pearl River Delta: Spatial patterns, causes, and implications for estuarine water management

Cai

Huang

Niu

et al. 2018

Hydrological Processes

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In this study, we examine the decadal variability of tidal dynamics in terms of the tidal range in the Pearl River Delta (PRD) from the 1950s to 2016. The Mann–Kendall trend test and Empirical Orthogonal Function (EOF) method are employed to identify the long‐term trends and spatial patterns of the annual tidal range series observed at 26 stations over the whole PRD, respectively. The results show that most stations display an increasing tidal range trend, except for some stations near estuarine outlets, which corresponds to the 1st EOF mode characterized by a rapid increase of the tidal range since the 1990s. This means that the cumulative impacts of human interventions reached their peak in the 1990s, exceeding the threshold of tidal dynamics in the PRD. To quantify human‐induced alternations of the tidal range, the tidal regime shift was subsequently explored by comparing the tidal ranges of the pre‐ and post‐1992 periods reconstructed from the EOF decomposition. The mechanism causing the tidal regime shift in the PRD can be attributed to the substantially reduced residual water level slope (hence, the effective bottom friction) that greatly enhances the tidal dynamics. Our study describes the shift of spatial–temporal tidal dynamics patterns in detail, which is particularly useful to guide effective and sustainable water management in the PRD and other river deltas that are subjected to intensive human interventions.

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“…The PRD, located in southern China, is China's third‐largest delta (after the Yangtze River Delta and the Yellow River Deltas) with a drainage area of 4.5 × 10 5 km 2 (see Figure 1a). From 1950 to 2000, the mean annual river discharge and sediment load of Pearl River are approximately 2.8 × 10 10 m 3 ∙y −1 and 7.2 × 10 7 t∙y −1 from three major tributaries (the East, North, and West Rivers) into the South China Sea via eight outlets (Humen, Jiaomen, Hongqimen, Hengmen, Modaomen, Jitimen, Hutiaomen, and Yamen; Liu, Peng, Liao, & Long, 2017). The PRD consists of complex river networks and outer bays.…”

Section: Study Site and Datasetsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Tidal regime shift in Lingdingyang Bay, the Pearl River Delta: An identification and assessment of driving factors

Wang

Ping

Zhou

et al. 2020

Hydrological Processes

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Both natural changes (e.g., tidal forcing from the ocean and global sea level rise) and human‐induced changes (e.g., dredging for navigation, sand excavation, and land reclamation) exert considerable influences on the long‐term evolution of tidal regimes in estuaries. Evaluating the impacts of these factors on tidal‐regime shifts is particularly important for the protection and management of estuarine environments. In this study, an analytical approach is developed to investigate the impacts of estuarine morphological alterations (mean water depth and width convergence length) on tidal hydrodynamics in Lingdingyang Bay, Southeast China. Based on the observed tidal levels from two tidal gauging stations along the channel, tidal wave celerity and tidal damping/amplification rate of different tidal constituents are computed using tidal amplitude and phase of tidal constituents extracted from a standard harmonic analysis. We show that the minimum mean water depth for the whole estuary occurred in 2006, whereas a shift in tidal wave celerity for the M2 tide component occurred in 2009. As such, the study period (1990–2016) could be separated into pre‐human (1990–2009) and post‐human (2010–2016) phases. Our results show that the damping/amplification rate and celerity of the M2 tide have increased by 31% (from 7 to 9.2 m−1) and 28% (from 7 to 9 m·s−1) respectively, as a consequence of the substantial impacts of human interventions. The proposed analytical method is subsequently applied to analyse the historical development of tidal hydrodynamics and regime shifts induced by human interventions, thus linking the evolution of estuarine morphology to the dominant tidal hydrodynamics along the channel. The observed tidal regime shift is primarily caused by channel deepening, which substantially enlarged the estuary and reduced effective bottom friction resulting in faster celerity and stronger wave amplification. Our proposed method for quantifying the impacts of human interventions on tidal regime shifts can inform evidence‐based guidelines for evaluating hydraulic responses to future engineering activities.

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The causes and impacts of water resources crises in the Pearl River Delta

Cited by 82 publications

References 67 publications

The Water-Economy Nexus and Sustainable Transition of the Pearl River Delta, China (1999–2015)

The Water-Economy Nexus and Sustainable Transition of the Pearl River Delta, China (1999–2015)

Decadal variability of tidal dynamics in the Pearl River Delta: Spatial patterns, causes, and implications for estuarine water management

Tidal regime shift in Lingdingyang Bay, the Pearl River Delta: An identification and assessment of driving factors

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