PROGRESS IN GEOGRAPHY ›› 2008, Vol. 27 ›› Issue (2): 39-46.doi: 10.11820/dlkxjz.2008.02.006

• Original Articles • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Thr eshold Model of Water Resour ce Exploitation and Its Application in the Yellow River Basin

LI Chunhui1,2, YANG Zhifeng1,2, ZHENG Xiaokang1, PANG Aiping2   

  1. 1. Key Lab of Water and Sand Science, Ministry of Education, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China;
    2. State Key Laboratory of Water Environment Simulation, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China
  • Received:2007-09-01 Revised:2008-01-01 Online:2008-03-25 Published:2008-03-25

Abstract:

Threshold of water resources exploitation is the basis for reasonable use of water resources and guarantee of ecosystem health in a basin. With the shortage of water resources becoming increasingly obvious a problem, the understandings on threshold of water resources exploitation are more and more deep, developing from the concept of "total water resources", "useful water resources" and "available water resources" to available water quantity considering the ecological water demand and water quality protection. In the paper, based on the concepts on water resource use, a new threshold theory and model of water resource exploitation in a basin is developed, which includes runoff, non - useful flood, water pollution, ecological water demand and repetitive calculation of water quantity. With the model, the threshold of water resource exploitation in a basin can be obtained. The Yellow River Basin is one of the serious water shortage regions in China, and it is at the risk of serious challenges of water scarcity. As one example, the threshold of water resource exploitation in the Yellow River Basin is preliminarily calculated by the model. The result shows that the average threshold is 23.8 billion m3, accounting for about 40% of the total natural runoff, which is accordant with the internationally recognized standards on water resource exploitation within a basin. The threshold of water resource exploitation can be increased by the ways of water diversion, decreasing water pollution, increasing pondage of reservoirs and increasing water use efficiency.

Key words: basin, the Yellow River Basin, threshold mode, water resources exploitation