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Arid Land Geography ›› 2021, Vol. 44 ›› Issue (5): 1407-1416.doi: 10.12118/j.issn.1000–6060.2021.05.21

• Earth Information Sciences • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Water resources carrying capacity of Tarim River Basin based on system dynamics model

LIU Xia1(),ZHANG Man2,XU Jianhua3,GUO Ying1,DUAN Weili4,SHEN Yanjun1()   

  1. 1. Key Laboratory of Agricultural Water Resources, Center for Agricultural Resources Research, Institute of Genetics and Developmental Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shijiazhuang 050021, Hebei, China
    2. College of Resources & Environmental Science, Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang 050024, Hebei, China
    3. School of Geographic Sciences, Huadong Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China
    4. State Key Laboratory of Desert and Oasis Ecology, Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Urumqi 830011, Xinjiang, China
  • Received:2020-08-18 Revised:2020-11-27 Online:2021-09-25 Published:2021-09-22
  • Contact: Yanjun SHEN E-mail:liuxia@ajziam.ac.cn;shenyanjun@sjziam.ac.cn

Abstract:

Assessing the carrying capacity of water resources is a central issue in water resources research. However, there is still debate about how to assess the carrying capacity of water resources. Most of the studies assessing the water resource carrying capacity of the Tarim Rvier Basin, Xinjiang, China have been based on empirical methods. However, few studies have used system dynamics models to assess the carrying capacity of water resources in the Tarim River Basin. This study constructed a systematic dynamic model for calculating the historical and future carrying capacity of the water resources in the Tarim River Basin. The dataset of this study is an authoritative dataset from the Statistical Yearbook and Bulletin on Water Resources in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The results indicate that the water resources of the Tarim River Basin exceeded carrying capacity during the historical period (2008-2016). From 2008 to 2016, the yield of water above the red line of water consumption was almost 10% of the red line of water consumption in the Tarim River Basin. According to socio-economic development trends, the water resources of the Tarim River Basin will remarkably exceed their water resource carrying capacity in the future (2020-2030). The yield of water above the red line of water consumption will be almost 32% of the red line of water consumption in the Tarim River Basin in 2030. In response to the needs of sustainable socio-economic development and water resource utilization, the water resources of the Tarim River Basin will gradually meet their water resource carrying capacity in the future (2020-2030). The water yield below the red line of water consumption will almost be 9% of the red line of water consumption in the Tarim River Basin in 2030. Given that the water resources of the Tarim River Basin do not exceed theirs water resource carrying capacity, the agricultural irrigation quota must be limited to less than 5.70×103 m3·hm-2 in 2030. The irrigated area should be limited to less than 2.60×106 hm2. The agricultural irrigation quota of 5.7×103 m3·hm-2 is slightly higher than the level of Israel, corresponding to the agricultural irrigation quota of 5.25×103 m3·hm-2. In the context of sustainable use of water resources in the Tarim River Basin, this study suggests that more agricultural water-saving facilities and irrigation technologies should be popularized. For example, drip irrigation technology should be used to irrigate farmlands in the Tarim River Basin. The water consumption of the gross domestic product (GDP) of the secondary and service industries is much lower than the GDP water consumption of industrial agriculture and water-saving agriculture. Structural adjustment of the planting industry needs to be pre-developed in the Tarim River Basin in the future. There is a need to accelerate the transformation of the Tarim River Basin industry and increase GDP, which accounts for the secondary and service industries. Therefore, the service and the secondary industries must be the pillar industries of the Tarim River Basin. This study also suggests that the Tarim River Basin should maintain a rapid growth trend in the industrial and service sector over the next decade. This can accelerate the development of the service industry, promote the economic development of the region, and reduce the dependence on water resources.

Key words: water resource carrying capacity, system dynamics model, arid region, water-saving agriculture, Tarim River Basin