Assessing Water Vulnerability Based On The Concept Of Water Footprint

With the increase in water abstraction, water risks have been a worldwide problem. The theory and assessment of water vulnerability studies will be of great scientific and practical importance, especially in regions with highly human activities. This study focuses on the water vulnerability in Jing-Jin-Ji re-gions (3J), which witness high density population, developed economy and outstanding water resource problems. An indicator system of water vulnerability was established by integrating resource pres-sure-development pressure-polution pressure-management pressure (RDPM) was established by using the concept of water footprint and the water vulnerability in the 3J regions was assessed from 2003 to 2013, while analytic hierarchy process and entropy coefficient theories was combined in order to deter-mine weights of different indicators. Scenario analysis based on the "Diverting Water from the South to the North Project" and "Strictest Water Resources Management System" was applied to analysis water vulnerability situation in the further. Also we applied the assessment framework into the water vulnera-bility of the country level. The main findings of the study are shown below:(1) The 3J regions witnessed problem of poor water endowments, high water exploitation, serious water pollution and unbalance management. Though Beijing had a relatively high level of water man-agement, it still suffered from serious water pollution. Tianjin has made a great progress in water man-agement, but its water vulnerability did not show a declining trend and new water management ap-proaches need to be explored. There is a big gap between Hebei province, whose water vulnerability seems to be more outstanding these years, and Beijing/Tianjin in terms of water management. As a re-sult, Hebei has been a "short slab" of water resources management in the 3J regions.(2) Water scarcity stress and water use stress could be relieved to some extent under the imple-mentation of Diverting Water from the South to the North Project" and "Strictest Water Resources Manage-ment System", also the situation of Hebei province could be improved. Furthermore, the com-pound index of water vulnerability are expected to improve from the relative high level to the medium level.(3) The distribution of water vulnerability has positive correlation with the distribution of the volume of water resources. Over 55.9% of population and 60.0% GDP was located in the provinces that suffer from water vulnerability over the medium level from the view of development of population and economic development. Also, Henan/Jiangsu/Shanxi and Shandong provinces witness a rising trend in terms of water vulnerability.Our research also demonstrate that the RDPM framework is qualified water problems in different scales by combing the conception and theory of water footprint, also for the predication the evolution of water vulnerability, so as to provide theoretical support for better water resources management.