Suchergebnisse

Groundwater overdraft is a worldwide phenomenon, resulting in environmental issues, such as water contamination, land subsidence, seawater intrusion, streamflow reduction, and deterioration of the ecological environment. Located in the central North China Plain, Hengshui City has experienced a regional groundwater depression cone due to excessive pumping of groundwater, resulting in the largest overdraft area in the North China Plain. Since 2014, Hebei Province has adopted measures to realize the comprehensive governance of groundwater overdraft in partial areas of Hengshui City, including adjusting planting structures, promoting agronomic water-saving techniques, strengthening hydraulic engineering construction, and innovative management systems. These measures have been in effect for two years, such that their effectiveness must be assessed for the beneficial recovery of groundwater levels to determine the means for their continuation and extension. However, the change in regional groundwater levels is not gradual, but reflects a process of sudden increase due to the intervention of government behavior, and many existing groundwater recharge models are difficult to apply. Therefore, establishing a reasonable, scientific evaluation system of the measures is a key problem that requires a solution. Using field surveys and experiments, this study establishes a quantitative analysis evaluation method to assess the performance of governance measures adopted by Hengshui City in 2015, with full consideration of the crop water demand process and rainfall frequency. The results show that governance measures had a significant positive outcome on reducing groundwater overdraft in pilot areas. Approximately 98.4% of the agricultural governance target was achieved, with confined groundwater rebounding by approximately 4.92 m as compared to 2015. According to the analysis, the three most efficient measures (the top three largest amounts of groundwater-saved per mu) adopted by the government were (1) non-agricultural crops replacement (forestry), (2) planting pattern adjustments, and (3) integration of water and fertilizer-vegetable, which can be promoted in future measures. However, considering the size of the implementation area and total governance capacity, water-saving during spring irrigation of wheat and replacement by surface water are the two most important conservation measures, which are required to further strengthen the management and implementation effect.

Water-rights trade has proved to be an effective method for coping with water shortages through the transfer of water resources between users. The water allocation system is classified into two categories based on information transparency and water rights transaction goals: administered system (AS) and market-based system (MS). A multi-agent and multi-objective optimal allocation model, built on a complex adaptive system, was introduced to direct the distribution of water resources under an AS in the Shiyang River Basin ; it was compared with a market-based water rights transaction model using the bulletin-board approach. Ideal economic agent equations played a dominant role in both models. The government and different water users were conceptualized as agents with different behaviors and goals in water allocation. The impact of water-saving cost on optimal water allocation was also considered. The results showed that an agent&rsquo ; s water-saving behavior was incentivized by high transaction prices in the water market. Under the MS, the highest bid in the quotation set had a dominant influence on how trade was conducted. A higher transaction price will, thus, result in a better benefit ratio, and a lower one will result in inactivity in terms of water rights trade. This will significantly impact the economic benefit to the basin.

In water shortage regions, water rights trading would be much useful for increasing water use inefficiency through changing users&rsquo ; water demand. In this study, a water optimal allocation modelling system is proposed by considering water rights trading and other governmental policies such as water prices, water savings and industrial policies. An agent-based model was developed to describe the behaviors and goals of individual agents using complex adaptive system theory, information transfers, and functional mechanisms between agents. The developed model was applied to Bayannur City, which suffers from severe water shortages. The water prices for different industries, the water rights transaction price, and the behaviors of various agents in 2020 were forecasted. The results reveal that the water resources optimal allocation model applied in this study can help realize the reasonable allocation of regional water resources under limited water supply. It is also valuable to guide the government in making water resources allocation policies and provide a practical reference for the formulation and adjustment of a water market transaction price.

The North China Plain, with a population of approximately 150 million, is facing severe water scarcity. The over-exploitation of groundwater in the region, with accumulation amounts reaching more than 150 billion m3, causes a series of hydrological and geological problems together with the consumption of a significant amount of energy. Here, we highlight the energy and greenhouse gas-related environmental co-benefits of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project (SNWDP). Moreover, we evaluate the energy-saving effect of SNWDP on groundwater exploitation based on the groundwater-exploitation reduction program implemented by the Chinese government. Our results show that the transferred water will replace about 2.97 billion m3 of exploited groundwater in the water reception area by 2020 and hence reduce energy consumption by 931 million kWh. Further, by 2030, 6.44 billion m3 of groundwater, which accounts for 27% of the current groundwater withdrawal, will save approximately 7% of Beijing's current thermal power generation output.