Modeling and analyzing supply-demand relationships of water resources in Xinjiang from a perspective of ecosystem services

Abstract

Water shortage is one bottleneck that limits economic and social developments in arid and semi-arid areas. As the impacts of climate change and human disturbance intensify across time, uncertainties in both water resource supplies and demands increase in arid and semi-arid areas. Taking a typical arid region in China, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, as an example, water yield depth (WYD) and water utilization depth (WUD) from 2002 to 2018 were simulated using the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) model and socioeconomic data. The supply-demand relationships of water resources were analyzed using the ecosystem service indices including water supply-demand difference (WSDD) and water supply rate (WSR). The internal factors in changes of WYD and WUD were explored using the controlled variable method. The results show that the supplydemand relationships of water resources in Xinjiang were in a slight deficit, but the deficit was alleviated due to increased precipitation and decreased WUD of irrigation. WYD generally experienced an increasing trend, and significant increase mainly occurred in the oasis areas surrounding both the Junggar Basin and Tarim Basin. WUD had a downward trend with a decline of 20.70%, especially in oasis areas. Water resources in most areas of Xinjiang were fully utilized and the utilization efficiency of water resources increased. The water yield module in the InVEST model was calibrated and validated using gauging station data in Xinjiang, and the result shows that the use of satellite-based water storage data helped to decrease the bias error of the InVEST model by 0.69×10 8 m 3 . This study analyzed water resource supplies and demands from a perspective of ecosystem services, which expanded the scope of the application of ecosystem services and increased the research perspective of water resource evaluation. The results could provide guidance for water resource management such as spatial allocation and structural optimization of water resources in arid and semi-arid areas.

Changes in the spatial and temporal characteristics of China’s arid region in the background of ENSO

“…Agriculture in arid regions relies on irrigation, which is also the largest water consumption in the arid region and it is highly dependent on runoff from snow/glacier-fed meltwater. Supply–demand relationships of water resources have been alleviated in some parts of arid regions thanks to the current increase in precipitation and runoff, and the improvement of water-saving agriculture 34 . Studies have also shown that the increase in runoff in arid regions cannot simply be attributed to the increase in snow/glacier-fed meltwater And increased rainfall contributes more to the increase in runoff in some rivers6.…”

Differentiated factors drive the spatial heterogeneity of ecosystem services in Xinjiang Autonomous Region, China

“…Xinjiang has a large area of sand and bare land, and sand erosion by wind is severe (Gong et al, 2014). The lack of water resources and the uneven spatial and temporal distributions are the main influencing factors restricting economic development in Xinjiang (Li F. et al, 2022). The ecosystem services was quantified at a 1 km 2 scale in 2020, and then the mean values of ecosystem service indicators at the county scales was calculated.…”

“…At the county level, the impact of driving forces on ecosystem services significantly differs in the east and west of Sichuan Province (Huang et al, 2022). Significant spatial heterogeneity affects a range of influencing factors in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area on the degree of coupling of ecosystem services and economic development (Li F. et al, 2022). Grid-scale can describe the spatial distribution of ecosystems in more detail, but the county scale is more conducive to ecological management zoning and regulation (Shen and Li, 2022).…”

Soil and Humans: A Comparative and A Pictorial Mini-Review

“…Recently, many studies have been published with a focus on soil ecosystem services including themes such as soil biodiversity (Farfan and Wall 2022), fresh water and its filtration by soil (Fig. 9; Han et al 2022), water resources and supply-demand (Li et al 2022), climatic warming and biodiversity losses (Kattel 2022), climate change and land use (Gao et Understanding the threats to soil biodiversity is an important issue for conservation of this vital resource for human life (Farfan and Wall 2022).…”