Please wait a minute...
Journal of Arid Land  2019, Vol. 11 Issue (5): 713-728    DOI: 10.1007/s40333-019-0092-8
Orginal Article     
Impacts of water resource planning on regional water consumption pattern: A case study in Dunhuang Oasis, China
Xifeng ZHANG1, Xin JIN2, Xiao BAI2, Yanbin JIANG1, Chansheng HE2,3,*()
1 College of Resource and Environment, Huazhong Agricultural University, Wuhan 430070, China
2 Key Laboratory of West China's Environmental System (Ministry of Education), College of Environment and Earth Science, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou 730000, China
3 Department of Geography, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo MI 49008-5200, USA
Download: HTML     PDF(1204KB)
Export: BibTeX | EndNote (RIS)      

Abstract  

Water resources are critical for the existence and development of oases in endorheic basins. Thus, to enable sustainable development, it is fundamentally important to understand how to allocate and use these resources in a reasonable way. We therefore simulated and analyzed changes in water consumption pattern within the Dunhuang Oasis of China under three scenarios using a system dynamic model that corresponds to different water consumption pattern. This was done to assess the impacts of regional water resource planning (comprehensive planning of the rational use of water resource and protection of ecosystem services in the Dunhuang Basin) on water consumption pattern within the Dunhuang Oasis. The first of these, Scenario 1, is a baseline in which the status quo is maintained, while Scenario 2 incorporates the comprehensive effects of agricultural water-saving irrigation measures with an inter-basin water diversion project, and Scenario 3 focuses on ecological rehabilitation. In the baseline Scenario 1, the total water consumption within the Dunhuang Oasis increased progressively while agricultural water consumption remained extremely high and threatened overall ecological security. In contrast, Scenario 2 would decrease agricultural water consumption by almost 5.30×107 m3 following the implementation of water-saving practices. The additional water allocated from an inter-basin water diversion project would play an important role in alleviating ecological strain on the oasis. Finally, in Scenario 3, the total irrigated land must be decreased to 20.6×103 hm2 by 2025 assuming that water supply for ecosystem restoration would be at least 50% of the total consumption. Although water resource planning plays a very important role in alleviating the ecological water crisis within the oasis, it is necessary to consider the suitable scale of oasis with regard to current water consumption pattern.



Key wordswater resources planning      water consumption pattern      system dynamics model      ecological rehabilitation      Dunhuang Oasis     
Received: 11 June 2018      Published: 10 October 2019
Corresponding Authors:
About author:

The first and second authors contributed equally to this work.

Cite this article:

Xifeng ZHANG, Xin JIN, Xiao BAI, Yanbin JIANG, Chansheng HE. Impacts of water resource planning on regional water consumption pattern: A case study in Dunhuang Oasis, China. Journal of Arid Land, 2019, 11(5): 713-728.

URL:

http://jal.xjegi.com/10.1007/s40333-019-0092-8     OR     http://jal.xjegi.com/Y2019/V11/I5/713

[1] Bark R H, Peeters L J M, Lester R E, et al.2013. Understanding the sources of uncertainty to reduce the risks of undesirable outcomes in large-scale freshwater ecosystem restoration projects: An example from the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia. Environmental Science & Policy, 33: 97-108.
[2] Berbel J, Gutiérrez-Martín C, Rodríguez-Díaz J A, et al.2015. Literature review on rebound effect of water saving measures and analysis of a Spanish case study. Water Resources Management, 29(3): 663-678.
[3] Bureau of Statistics of the City of Dunhuang.2007. Dunhuang National Economic Statistics Yearbook.
[4] Bureau of Statistics of the City of Dunhuang.2013. Dunhuang National Economic Statistics Yearbook.
[5] Burke T.2012. Proposed Basin Plan, Water Act 2007. Canberra: Murray-Darling Basin Authority Press, 1-245.
[6] Chen Z K, Wang H, Wang D X.2004. Water Resource Configuration, Ecological Environment Construction and Strategy of Sustainable Development Research in Northwest China (Water Volume). Beijing: Science Press, 1-231. (in Chinese)
[7] Cheng G D, Li X, Zhao W Z, et al.2014. Integrated study of the water-ecosystem-economy in the Heihe River Basin. National Science Review, 1(3): 413-428.
[8] Crase L, Pagan P, Dollery B.2004. Water markets as a vehicle for reforming water resource allocation in the Murray-Darling Basin of Australia. Water Resource Research, 40(8): W08S05, doi: 10.1029/2003WR002786.
[9] de Fraiture C, Molden D, Wichelns D.2010. Investing in water for food, ecosystems, and livelihoods: An overview of the comprehensive assessment of water management in agriculture. Agricultural Water Management, 97(4): 495-501.
[10] Department of Geoscience, Chinese Academy of Sciences.1996. Water resource survey report in arid regions of northwest China. Advances in Earth Science, 11: 1-4. (in Chinese)
[11] Feng Q, Endo K N, Cheng G D.2001. Towards sustainable development of the environmentally degraded arid rivers of China—a case study from Tarim River. Environmental Geology, 41(1-2): 229-238.
[12] Forrester J W.1961. Industrial Dynamics. Cambridge: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Press, 1-484.
[13] Gansu Province Water Conservancy and Hydropower Investigation and Design Institute.2011. Field water-saving transformation project preliminary design report of Dang river irrigation district. Lanzhou, China. (in Chinese)
[14] Gertseva V V, Schindler J E, Gertsev V I, et al.2004. A simulation model of the dynamics of aquatic macroinvertebrate communities. Ecological Modelling, 176(1-2): 173-186.
[15] Gutiérrez-Martín C, Borrego-Marín M M, Berbel J.2017. The economic analysis of water use in the water framework directive based on the system of environmental-economic accounting for water: A case study of the Guadalquivir River Basin. Water, 9(3): 180, doi: 10.3390/w9030180.
[16] Higgins S I, Turpie J K, Costanza R, et al.1997. An ecological economic simulation model of mountain fynbos ecosystems: Dynamics, valuation and management. Ecological Economics, 22(2): 155-169.
[17] Hu R J, Jiang F Q, Wang Y J.2010. To have a correct understanding of the stability of oasis in arid lands of China. Arid Zone Research, 27(3): 319-323. (in Chinese)
[18] Hu X L, Lu L, Li X, et al.2015a. Ejin oasis land use and vegetation change between 2000 and 2011: The role of the ecological water diversion project. Energies, 8(7): 7040-7057.
[19] Hu X L, Lu L, Li X, et al.2015b. Land use/cover change in the middle reaches of the Heihe River Basin over 2000-2011 and its implications for sustainable water resource management. PloS ONE, 10(6): e0128960.
[20] Huang Q, He C, Shi P, et al.2009. Modeling water resource carrying capacity change under stress of drought and socioeconomic development in Beijing. Journal of Natural Resources, 24(5): 859-870.
[21] Ling H, Xu H, Fu J, et al.2013. Suitable oasis scale in a typical continental river basin in an arid region of China: A case study of the Manas River Basin. Quaternary International, 286: 116-125.
[22] Micklin P P.1988. Desiccation of the Aral Sea: a water management disaster in the Soviet Union. Science, 241(4870): 1170-1176.
[23] Mohapatra P K, Mandal P, Bora M C.1994. Introduction to System Dynamics Modeling. Hyderabad: Orient Longman Ltd Press, 1-608.
[24] Niu S W, Liu J L, Ma L, et al.2010. Water resource carrying capacity along the Yellow River of Gansu Province. China Rural Water and Hydropower, 6: 20-25. (in Chinese)
[25] Okin G S, Gillette D A, Herrick J E.2006. Multi-scale controls on and consequences of aeolian processes in landscape change in arid and semi-arid environments. Journal of Arid Environments, 65(2): 253-275.
[26] Qi S Z, Luo F.2006. Land-use change and its environmental impact in the Heihe River Basin, arid northwestern China. Environmental Geology, 50(4): 535-540.
[27] Sun Z, Chang N B, Opp C, et al.2011. Evaluation of ecological restoration through vegetation patterns in the lower Tarim River, China with MODIS NDVI data. Ecological Informatics, 6(2): 156-163.
[28] Water Resources Department of Gansu Province. 2005. Industry Water Use Quota of Gansu Province. Lanzhou: Gansu People's Publishing House Press, 1-38. (in Chinese)
[29] Water Resource Department of Gansu Province. 2011. Comprehensive planning of rational use of water resource and protection of ecosystem services in the Dunhuang Region. Lanzhou: Gansu People's Publishing House Press, 1-75. (in Chinese)
[30] Wheeler S, Loch A, Zuo A, et al.2014. Reviewing the adoption and impact of water markets in the Murray-Darling Basin, Australia. Journal of Hydrology, 518: 28-41.
[31] Woodhouse C A, Gray S T, Meko D M.2006. Updated streamflow reconstructions for the Upper Colorado River basin. Water Resources Research, 42(5): 648.
[32] Zhang X F, Zhang L H, He C S, et al.2014. Quantifying the impacts of land use/land cover change on groundwater depletion in Northwestern China-A case study of the Dunhuang oasis. Agricultural Water Management, 146: 270-279.
[33] Zhao C H, Wang P, Zhang G H.2015. A comparison of integrated river basin management strategies: A global perspective. Physics and Chemistry of the Earth, Parts A/B/C, 89-90: 10-17.
[34] Zhou C J, Dong S C, Li D, et al.2007. The characteristics and sustainable utilization of water resource in Dunhuang City of Gansu Province, China. Journal of Natural Resources, 22(4): 516-523. (in Chinese)
[35] Zhu Q, Li Y.2014. Environmental restoration in the Shiyang River Basin, China: conservation, reallocation and more efficient use of water. Aquatic Procedia, 2: 24-34.
[1] ShanShan DAI, LanHai LI, HongGang XU, XiangLiang PAN, XueMei LI. A system dynamics approach for water resources policy analysis in arid land: a model for Manas River Basin[J]. Journal of Arid Land, 2013, 5(1): 118-131.