Abstract
Water supply systems in watershed cities face challenges due to increasing water demand and arbitrary sewage discharge allocations. Previous studies have primarily focused on water resource allocation and sewage discharge rights, neglecting the intricate interactions between the two. This study introduces a novel approach by integrating sewage discharge rights into the watershed’s water resource allocation mechanism. A multi-objective optimization model was developed, employing the Gini coefficient to balance the equitable and economic aspects across various water sectors. This model takes into account the distinct water demands and sewage discharge requirements of different sectors. The findings of this study are as follows: (a) the Gini coefficients for water demand allocation and sewage discharge rights allocation exhibit simultaneous optimization and display consistent trends; (b) when the importance of sewage discharge relative to other water users increases, the return on investment for domestic and industrial water use decreases, but the fairness of water distribution improves; (c) proper allocation of sewage discharge rights can effectively enhance the economic value of agricultural water use. Overall, this strategy has the potential to enhance both the equality and economic benefits of the water supply system while ensuring the sustainable utilization of water and sewage rights in the basin cities.
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Funding
This work was supported by the Chengdu University of Technology Postgraduate Research Program for Innovative and Top-notch Talents (Grant No. CDUT2022BJCX012).
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Mingkang Yuan: conceptualization, methodology, validation, writing—original draft. Xudong Chen: software, validation, data curation, review original draft. Yue Li: data curation, supervision, writing—review and editing. Zixuan Zhang: software, validation, data curation. Lin Wang: data collection and processing, editing and typesetting.
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Highlights
•Innovative integration of sewage discharge rights into watershed water management.
•A multi-objective model was developed to optimize the urban water supply system.
•A model that considers equity, economics, and the environment can improve sustainable water use.
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Yuan, ., Chen, X., Li, Y. et al. Collaborative optimal allocation of water resources and sewage discharge rights in watershed cities: considering equity among water sectors. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 88949–88967 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-28664-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-28664-w