Water Scarcity and Generalized Water Resources Management in Urumqi: Contributions from Noncompetitive Water Input-Output Model

摘要

Water exists in both a physical and virtual sense. This paper presents a noncompetitive water input-output model for investigating water allocation. The model achieves a robust first-pass diagnostic of water flows in Urumqi, China. Generalized water resources amounted to 4.973 billion m(3) in 2012, of which fresh, recycled, indirect virtual, and net external virtual water accounted for 22, 4, 12, and 62%, respectively. The water deficit reached 3.678 billion m(3), approximately 2.84 times the amount of physical water on hand. External virtual water levels amounted to 3.45 billion m(3), 3.14 times the volume of freshwater available. Agricultural activities generated 1.5% of the gross domestic product, but such activities consumed 60% of all freshwater available. In addition, 0.37 billion m(3) of local water flowed out of Urumqi in a virtual sense. As a result, generalized water resources management is dependent on the following two basic measures: improving the water infrastructure construction mechanisms to increase physical water supplies, and improving trade with water-rich regions to increase virtual water supplies. (C) 2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.