Water resources utilization and tourism environment assessment based on water footprint

Abstract

Purpose With population growth and economic development, global Water Resources (WR) are becoming increasingly scarce. As an important consumer sector, the tourism industry is increasingly consuming and polluting WR. How to reasonably utilize WR and protect the water environment has become an important issue for the sustainable development of the current tourism industry. Methods Based on the Water Footprint of WR utilization and tourism environment assessment, this article used four different WR management schemes in different tourist areas to compare with the traditional scheme. Result According to the experimental results, it could be concluded that the wastewater discharge and environmental risk index under low Water Consumption technology in a certain mountainous tourist attraction were approximately 90,000 m3 and 0.25, respectively; the wastewater discharge and environmental risk index of a certain tourist city using renewable water technology were approximately 600,000 m3 and 0.5, respectively. The impact of adopting different WR management schemes in different regions has also varied. Conclusion This also indicated that when formulating WR management plans for various tourist areas, it was necessary to fully consider the impact of the tourism environment and develop scientific and reasonable management measures. The research in this article has broad application prospects in practice, which helped to promote sustainable economic development and progress in social civilization.