Water shortages raised a legitimate concern over the sustainable development of the drylands of northern China: Evidence from the water stress index

Jingwei Li; Zhifeng Liu; Chunyang He; Huanbi Yue; Siyuan Gou

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.03.037

Water shortages raised a legitimate concern over the sustainable development of the drylands of northern China: Evidence from the water stress index

Sci Total Environ. 2017 Jul 15:590-591:739-750. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.03.037. Epub 2017 Mar 8.

Authors

Jingwei Li¹, Zhifeng Liu², Chunyang He³, Huanbi Yue⁴, Siyuan Gou⁵

Affiliations

¹ Center for Human-Environment System Sustainability (CHESS), State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology (ESPRE), Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China. Electronic address: jingwei.li@mail.bnu.edu.cn.
² Center for Human-Environment System Sustainability (CHESS), State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology (ESPRE), Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China. Electronic address: zhifeng.liu@bnu.edu.cn.
³ Center for Human-Environment System Sustainability (CHESS), State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology (ESPRE), Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China. Electronic address: hcy@bnu.edu.cn.
⁴ Center for Human-Environment System Sustainability (CHESS), State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology (ESPRE), Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China. Electronic address: yuehuanbi@163.com.
⁵ Center for Human-Environment System Sustainability (CHESS), State Key Laboratory of Earth Surface Processes and Resource Ecology (ESPRE), Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China; Faculty of Geographical Science, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China. Electronic address: gousiyuan@mail.bnu.edu.cn.

PMID: 28284646
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.03.037

Abstract

Developing a greater understanding of water stress dynamics is crucial for sustainable development in global drylands. The primary goal of this study was to examine the water stress dynamics throughout the drylands of northern China (DNC). We first calculated the water stress index (WSI) of all 474 catchments in the DNC in 2003 and 2014. Then, we investigated the water stress dynamics in the DNC between 2003 and 2014 at multiple scales, which included the entire DNC, the drainage basins, and the main cities. In 2014, we found water stress in DNC over an area of 2.05×10⁶km², which accounted for 52.13% of the total area of the DNC. From 2003 to 2014, the water stress in the DNC increased primarily because of increases in the area of irrigated croplands and the population of urban areas, and the total increase in the water stress area reached 3.14×10⁵km², which accounted for 7.98% of the total area of the DNC. We also found that water shortages raised a legitimate concern over the sustainable development of the DNC because the population and urban land area exposed to water stress in the DNC have rapidly increased by 2.61×10⁷ persons and 1.25×10⁴km² over the past two decades, respectively. Thus, we argue that effective actions are required to address the water stress in the DNC.

Keywords: Drylands of northern China; Sustainable development; Water shortage; Water stress index.