The impacts of the ecological water diversion project on the ecology-hydrology-economy nexus in the lower reaches in an inland river basin

There has been renewed interest in assessing the pilot scheme for compiling the natural resources capitalization (NRC). A growing body of evidence highlights the good effects that the policy of NRC has on the construction of ecological civilization. No known empirical research has focused on exploring relationships between the policy of NRC and carbon emissions reduction. This paper employs the NRC as the ecological civilization policy to investigate whether the implementation of NRC has contributed to the carbon emissions reduction with a difference-in-differences (DID) method. The results showed that different variables of carbon emissions in four pilot cities can be effectively affected by the implementation of NRC. There were significant negative correlations between the carbon emissions per GDP (Gross Domestic Product) and the policy for Hulun Buir, Huzhou and Loudi cities, and a significant increase of carbon sequestration was found in Yan’an city. This research provides a timely and necessary study that the NRC policy could be a contributing factor to carbon emissions reduction. As a result of these investigations, suggestions were identified for future research. Further research should be undertaken to investigate the collaborative effects of multi-policies on environmental issues.

Section: Economic Model Specificationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Can the Natural Resources Capitalization Contribute to the Achievement of Carbon Neutrality? A Pilot Experiment Evidence From China

Xia

Xiong

et al. 2022

“…The rapid expansion of production and living space has led to the narrowing of ecological space. The disorderly development of land restricts sustainable development and may lead to a decline in regional development competitiveness and affect the ecology and living environment (Hou & Braham, 2021;Lu et al, 2021;Wang et al, 2021). In terms of water, resources in arid ones are in short supply, with the proportion of water used for production reaching as high as 79.8%.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In comparison, water used for ecological purposes accounts for only 5.3% of the total water consumption (Chen et al, 2019). The allocation of water resources is dominated by the economic development planning department, which pays more attention to production and domestic water and ignores ecological water (Hu et al, 2021;Lu et al, 2021;Xu et al, 2022). The misuse of water resources has worsened the ecological environment in fragile inland areas (Eaton et al, 2021).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial and temporal changes in land and water resources on the northern slopes of the Tianshan mountains from the perspective of “production-living-ecological space”

Tian²,

Yang³

et al. 2023

The rapidly growing social demand for water and land, along with increasingly constraining economic and social development, have intensified the conflicts between regional production, living, and ecological spaces (PLES). Water and land resources have become major obstacles to long-term growth in arid and semi-arid regions. Therefore, we propose a scenario-based framework for a production, living, and ecological spaces water resource assessment, integrating patch-generating land use simulation (PLUS), Shared Socioeconomic Pathways (SSPs), and multiple regression equations to analye the spatial and temporal variability of these resources on the northern slopes of the Tianshan Mountains (NSTM) and assess the future development of water resources. The results show: 1) from 2000 to 2020, land use types on the northern slopes of the Tianshan Mountains were dominated by ecological land, which decreased to 11,793 km2; production and domestic land use increased. Water for production and ecological use accounted for approximately 93% and a minor proportion of the total water use, respectively. 2) Production land is mainly influenced by population density and Gross Domestic Product (GDP), living land by population density, and ecological land by precipitation and topographic factors. 3) The PLUS model had good applicability, with a kappa coefficient, overall accuracy, and FoM of 0.81, 0.88, and 0.28, respectively. 4) The total water use in the northern slopes of the Tianshan Mountains will increase under all three scenarios between 2030 and 2050, but by varying degrees. Production water use accounts for the most significant proportion (93%), with its use decreasing by 305 million m3 under the SSP3 scenario. Domestic water use shows a slow increase under all three scenarios. Further development of the northern slopes of the Tianshan Mountains should take account of regional ecological vulnerability, and water use for production should be controlled based on existing water resources and ecological capacity to reduce pressure on the environment and provide essential ecological protection and sustainable development.

“…The Three Gorges Project formed a fluctuation zone, and its ecosystem is fragile. Related studies have mainly focused on the health and change mechanism of the ecosystem in the water-level fluctuation zone of the Three Gorges Reservoir area, including the soil, vegetation, ecological problems, and restoration (He and Bao, 2019;Lu, 2021;Lu et al, 2021;Shen et al, 2021). In addition, the characteristics of the water-level fluctuation zone, such as its long and narrow shape, cloudy weather, and large variations in the water level, increase the difficulty of data acquisition, and thus, previous research studies on the water conservation services are mainly based on static evaluations (Zhang et al, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The operation of large-scale water conservancy projects has significantly affected the regional water and soil resources and the ecological services (Cheng et al, 2015;Cheng et al, 2018;Hu, 2019;Li and Hao, 2019;Gong et al, 2020;Li et al, 2021a). Lu et al (2021) analyzed the comprehensive effect and driving mechanism of the ecological water transfer project in the Heihe River Basin since 2000 and found that the hydrological, ecological, and socio-economic systems in the LXS region have formed feedback loops, but the comprehensive correlation among the water resources, ecosystem, and socio-economic system should still be considered in order to coordinate the relationship between them.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water Conservation Ecological Service Function and Its Value Response Mechanism in a Nested Water Conservancy Project Area

Zeng

Mao

et al. 2022

The Three Gorges Project is the largest water conservancy project in the world. To cope with the ecological problems of the subsidence zone in the Three Gorges Reservoir area, the Kaizhou water-level-regulating dam was built, forming a model of nested water conservancy projects. The Pengxi River Basin is affected not only by this project but also by human activities in the reservoir area and changes in the substratum and hydro-meteorology, which exert influences on the water connotation function and its ecological value through complex mechanisms. In addition, the response mechanism of the changes in the environment is unclear. Therefore, based on the Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Tradeoffs (InVEST) model and a spatial interpolation method, in this study, two time nodes (2005 and 2018) before and after the operation of the nested water conservancy projects began were selected, and seven simulation scenarios with different water levels, precipitations, and temperatures were created to explore the evolution of the water conservation service function in the nested water conservancy project operation area under the complex changes in the environment. The results reveal that the operation of the water conservancy projects has had some influence on the water content, but the response of the water content function to the precipitation conditions has been more significant. In colder and rainier years, the water content was higher. In contrast, the lowest value occurred in a year with high temperatures and low rainfall. The highest and lowest values were quantitatively different. Therefore, the influences of the complex environmental factors on the regional water connotation service function deserve more attention. The results of this study provide a scientific basis for research on the ecological service function and the value of water conservation in the Three Gorges Reservoir subsidence zone and the nested operation area of the related water conservancy projects, as well as a data reference for the optimal allocation of regional water resources.