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Sociohydrology: An Effective Way to Reveal the Coupled Evolution of Human and Water Systems

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Abstract

Human activities are profoundly changing the state of natural water systems. Human-water interactions have shown unprecedented scale and intensity. Traditional hydrological methods have difficulty systematically analyzing the process of water utilization, transformation, transportation and redistribution in the production and consumption of products. This paper reviews the literature surrounding sociohydrology to illustrate its useful exploration in the study of human-water coupling. The paper begins by presenting background information before conducting a bibliometric analysis of the development trends. Four perspectives of sociohydrology revealing the interaction between humans and water are introduced: the evolution of basin-scale water allocation patterns; human activities and hydrological disasters under climate change; virtual water—a useful tool for analyzing water utilization and transformation in the production and consumption of products; and public participation and water management policies. Subsequently, major methods and their potential applications are covered: sociohydrological modeling, field surveys and statistical models. A literature review suggests that the focus of research on human-water coupling lies in the selection and modeling of elements. The macro-element describing system changes should be extended at the political and cultural levels. Research on structural and institutional indicators on a long historical scale should be deepened and expanded. Interdisciplinary research still needs further development.

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Acknowledgements

This work is jointly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (51979230, 52122903), Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars of Shaanxi Province (2021JC-20), Fok Ying-Tong Education Foundation (171113) and Tang Scholar Project of Cyrus Tang Foundation (CTNWAF1710).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory for Agricultural Soil and Water Engineering in Arid Area of Ministry of Education, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi, 712100, P. R. China

    Jiali Gu, Shikun Sun, Yubao Wang, Yali Yin, Jingxin Sun & Xinyu Qi

  2. Institute of Water Saving Agriculture in Arid regions of China, Northwest A&F University, Yangling, Shaanxi, 712100, P. R. China

    Jiali Gu, Shikun Sun, Yubao Wang, Yali Yin, Jingxin Sun & Xinyu Qi

  3. Center for Agricultural Water Research in China, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China

    Xiaojuan Li

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  1. Jiali Gu
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Contributions

JG: Literature search, Writing - Original Draft. SS: Conceptualization, Methodology, Supervision, Writing - Reviewing and Editing, Funding acquisition. YW: Writing - Reviewing and Editing. XL: Writing - Reviewing and Editing. YY: Literature and data analysis. JS: Literature and data analysis. XQ: Reviewing and Editing.

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Correspondence to Shikun Sun.

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Gu, J., Sun, S., Wang, Y. et al. Sociohydrology: An Effective Way to Reveal the Coupled Evolution of Human and Water Systems. Water Resour Manage 35, 4995–5010 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11269-021-02984-3

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