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Demand control and quota management strategy for sustainable water use in China

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Abstract

With enhanced economic development and population growth in recent years, total water consumption has increased significantly around the world. As the most populated and most rapidly developing country in the world, one of the major challenges for the Chinese government is to guarantee a continuous water supply to improve the livelihood of the growing population and maintain the fast development of the economy. An ever-increasing trend of water consumption has led to the construction of hydraulic structures and degradation of the ecosystem in China. Through the analysis of water consumption and water-use efficiency around the world, this study concluded that water demand management is the only option to assure a continuous supply of water to a growing population and developing economy. In this paper, water supply and demand of China over the time period 1980–2009 are analyzed to formulate water demand management strategies for a sustainable water supply. The study proposes that a water demand management strategy, based on demand control and quota management, could be a better option for sustainable water management in China. An example of the Haihe River Basin is provided to show the success of water demand management using total demand control and quota management. It can be expected that through the encouragement of a water conserving society, by water demand management, it is possible to harmonize the relationship among water, the environment, ecosystems, and human beings in China.

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51309155, 41330854), National Basic Research Program of China (No. 2010CB951104 and 2010CB951103), China water resource fee funded project (No. 1261430210021), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation funded project (No. 2013M530027), Central Public-Interest Scientific Institution Basal Research Fund (No. Y513004), Asia–Pacific Network for Global Change (Grant no. ARCP2013-25NSY-Shahid), and supported by the Special Fund of State Key Laboratory of China (No. Y514010)—all for providing financial support for this research. We are also thankful to anonymous reviewers and editors for their helpful comments and suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Hydrology-Water Resources and Hydraulic Engineering, Nanjing Hydraulic Research Institute, Nanjing, 210029, People’s Republic of China

    Xiao-jun Wang, Jian-yun Zhang, Rui-min He & Xu Zhang

  2. Research Centre for Climate Change, Ministry of Water Resources, No. 225 Guangzhou Road, Nanjing, 210029, People’s Republic of China

    Xiao-jun Wang, Jian-yun Zhang, Rui-min He & Xu Zhang

  3. State Key Laboratory of Water Environment Simulation, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Bejing, 100875, People’s Republic of China

    Xiao-jun Wang

  4. Faculty of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), 81310, Johor Bahru, Malaysia

    Shamsuddin Shahid

  5. Department of Water Resources, Ministry of Water Resources, Beijing, 100053, People’s Republic of China

    Shou-hai Bi

  6. Water Management Center, Ministry of Water Resources, Beijing, 100053, People’s Republic of China

    Yi-bin Yu

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  1. Xiao-jun Wang
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Correspondence to Xiao-jun Wang.

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Wang, Xj., Zhang, Jy., Shahid, S. et al. Demand control and quota management strategy for sustainable water use in China. Environ Earth Sci 73, 7403–7413 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-014-3915-0

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