Water Sustainability for China and Beyond

Liu, Jianguo; Yang, Wu

doi:10.1126/science.1219471

Cited by 426 publications

(202 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Impacts of climate change on agriculture are predicted to be most significant in regions where food demands are growing the fastest, e.g., China, requiring trade to bridge the gap between food production and food consumption (Jones and Thornton 2003). More water transfer projects are being built to address water crises in regions plagued by water scarcity, including the world's largest and longest one, China's South-North Water Transfer Scheme, which aims for 45 billion m³ of annual water transfer with a planned investment of US$ 77 billion (Liu and Yang 2012). At the same time, expansion of information technology and networks has promoted democracy (Li and Reuveny 2003), availability of cellular phones that allow for connections with distant partners has improved trade opportunities for local shareholders (Aker 2008), and global health networks have made vaccines increasingly available for remote communities (Milstien et al 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Framing Sustainability in a Telecoupled World

Liu¹,

Hull²,

Batistella³

et al. 2013

E&S

Self Cite

804

585

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ABSTRACT. Interactions between distant places are increasingly widespread and influential, often leading to unexpected outcomes with profound implications for sustainability. Numerous sustainability studies have been conducted within a particular place with little attention to the impacts of distant interactions on sustainability in multiple places. Although distant forces have been studied, they are usually treated as exogenous variables and feedbacks have rarely been considered. To understand and integrate various distant interactions better, we propose an integrated framework based on telecoupling, an umbrella concept that refers to socioeconomic and environmental interactions over distances. The concept of telecoupling is a logical extension of research on coupled human and natural systems, in which interactions occur within particular geographic locations. The telecoupling framework contains five major interrelated components, i.e., coupled human and natural systems, flows, agents, causes, and effects. We illustrate the framework using two examples of distant interactions associated with trade of agricultural commodities and invasive species, highlight the implications of the framework, and discuss research needs and approaches to move research on telecouplings forward. The framework can help to analyze system components and their interrelationships, identify research gaps, detect hidden costs and untapped benefits, provide a useful means to incorporate feedbacks as well as trade-offs and synergies across multiple systems (sending, receiving, and spillover systems), and improve the understanding of distant interactions and the effectiveness of policies for socioeconomic and environmental sustainability from local to global levels.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Framing Sustainability in a Telecoupled World

Liu¹,

Hull²,

Batistella³

et al. 2013

E&S

Self Cite

804

585

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The total transfer projected through the SNWT scheme by 2050 (45 km 3 /y) is about three times the volume saved in the IM+B scenario relative to BL. However, providing more water to these regions with both scarce resources and inefficient use may encourage the development of wasteful water-intensive activities in dry areas (30), thus failing at improving environmental sustainability. In addition, the SNWT canals will not provide resources to the driest agricultural lands in Northwest China, where the coal industry and agriculture compete for increasingly scarce water resources.…”

Section: G U Iz H O U T Ib E T Q In G H a Imentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It plans to bring total investment in solving water problems to 4 trillion yuan (U.S.$635 billion) in the next 10 y. Political will is shifting in favor of environmental protection, but implementation, governance, and integrated management are still lacking (30). It is too early to know whether such funds could be directed to farmers abandoning unsustainable irrigation, but specific references have been made to focus on water-scarce areas and to convert irrigated cropland to conservation areas in a section of the 2013 No.…”

Section: G U Iz H O U T Ib E T Q In G H a Imentioning

confidence: 99%

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Balancing water resource conservation and food security in China

Dalin

Qiu

Hanasaki

et al. 2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

168

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China's economic growth is expected to continue into the next decades, accompanied by sustained urbanization and industrialization. The associated increase in demand for land, water resources, and rich foods will deepen the challenge of sustainably feeding the population and balancing agricultural and environmental policies. We combine a hydrologic model with an economic model to project China's future food trade patterns and embedded water resources by 2030 and to analyze the effects of targeted irrigation reductions on this system, notably on national agricultural water consumption and food self-sufficiency. We simulate interprovincial and international food trade with a general equilibrium welfare model and a linear programming optimization, and we obtain province-level estimates of commodities' virtual water content with a hydrologic model. We find that reducing irrigated land in regions highly dependent on scarce river flow and nonrenewable groundwater resources, such as Inner Mongolia and the greater Beijing area, can improve the efficiency of agriculture and trade regarding water resources. It can also avoid significant consumption of irrigation water across China (up to 14.8 km 3 /y, reduction by 14%), while incurring relatively small decreases in national food self-sufficiency (e.g., by 3% for wheat). Other researchers found that a national, rather than local, water policy would have similar effects on food production but would only reduce irrigation water consumption by 5%.virtual water | food trade | trade policy | sustainable agriculture | water saving

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“…In Jiangsu province, water supply differs by location and season. Thus, the distribution, protection, and utilization of water resources can have a significant impact on regional socio-economic development [57]. Water resource utilization is a complex economic and engineering problem.…”

Section: Construction Of the Water Resources Utilization Index Systemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dynamic Coupling Analysis of Urbanization and Water Resource Utilization Systems in China

Chou

Wang

2016

Sustainability

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While urbanization brings economic and social benefits, it also causes water pollution and other environmental ecological problems. This paper provides a theoretical framework to quantitatively analyze the dynamic relationship between water resource utilization and the process of urbanization. Using data from Jiangsu province, we first construct indices to evaluate urbanization and water resource utilization. We then adopt an entropy model to examine the correlation between urbanization and water resource utilization. In addition, we introduce a dynamic coupling model to analyze and predict the coupling degree between urbanization and water resource utilization. Our analyses show that pairing with rising urbanization during 2002-2014, the overall index of water resource utilization in Jiangsu province has experienced a "decline -rise-decline" trend. Specifically, after the index of water resource utilization reached its lowest point in 2004, it gradually began to rise. Water resource utilization reached its highest value in 2010. The coupling degree between urbanization and water resource utilization was relatively low in 2002 and 2003 varying between −90 • and 0 • . It has been rising since then. Out-of-sample forecasts indicate that the coupling degree will reach its highest value of 74.799 • in 2016, then will start to gradually decline. Jiangsu province was chosen as our studied area because it is one of the selected pilot provinces for China's economic reform and social development. The analysis of the relationship between provincial water resource utilization and urbanization is essential to the understanding of the dynamic relationship between these two systems. It also serves as an important input for developing national policies for sustainable urbanization and water resource management.

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Water Sustainability for China and Beyond

Abstract: Despite investments in water infrastructure, China must address complex human-nature interactions to ensure supply and quality.

Cited by 426 publications

References 9 publications

Framing Sustainability in a Telecoupled World

Framing Sustainability in a Telecoupled World

Balancing water resource conservation and food security in China

Dynamic Coupling Analysis of Urbanization and Water Resource Utilization Systems in China

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