The Relationship between Coordination Degree of the Water–Energy–Food System and Regional Economic Development

The sustainable development of the water–energy–food (WEF) system has gained global attention as a result of limited land resources, inadequate energy supply and growing water stress. Coordination degree is an important indicator to measure the sustainable development of the WEF system. Improving the coordination degree contributes to the sustainable development of the WEF system and affects regional economic development. The extended Cobb–Douglas function is applied to examine the relationship between coordination degree of the WEF system and regional economic development in 31 provinces of China during the period of 2007–2018. By using the system generalized method of moments (GMM) estimation, empirical results indicate that in the regions with low coordination degree, improved coordination degree of the WEF system will hinder regional economic growth. In the regions with high coordination degree, it will promote regional economic growth. The results indicate that there is a lag period for the influence of improved coordination degree on regional economic growth. When making resources management policies, shortening the lag period is conducive to achieving sustainable development and promoting regional economic development. Governments of various regions should formulate different resource management policies based on the conditions of each region and the different relationships between coordination degree of the WEF system and regional economic development

Coupling and Coordination Degrees of the Core Water–Energy–Food Nexus in China

Achieving sustainable development in the water–energy–food (WEF) nexus is gaining global attention. The coupling and coordination degrees are a way to measure sustainable development levels of a complex system. This study assessed the coupling and coordination degrees of the core WEF nexus and identified key factors that affect sustainable development. First, an index system for assessing coupling and coordination degrees of the core WEF nexus was built. Second, the development levels of three subsystems as well as the coupling and coordination degrees of the core WEF nexus in China were calculated. The results showed that from 2007 to 2016, the mean value of the coupling degree was 0.746 (range (0.01, 1)), which was a high level. This proved that the three resources were interdependent. Hence, it was necessary to study their relationship. However, the mean value of the coordination degree was 0.395 (range (0, 1)), which was a low level. This showed that the coordination development of the core WEF nexus in China was low. It is necessary to take some measures to improve the situation. According to the key factors that affect the development levels of water, energy, and food subsystems, the authors put forward some suggestions to improve the coordination development of the WEF system in China

Effects of Short-Term Uncertainties on the Revenue Estimation of PPP Sewage Treatment Projects

Many sewage treatment facilities in China have been developed and operated using the Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) model. However, a big challenge faced by these PPP projects is that the subsidy requested from the government during the operation is normally higher than what was estimated originally, thus often exceeding the budget that the government can afford. This leads to a high risk of project failure or insufficient operation. This problem is largely caused by the uncertainties exhibited in the existing models, such as the Black-Scholes (BS) model. While being used in the budget estimation, these models cannot sufficiently account for the short-term uncertainty that may be incurred during the operation of projects. In this study, a method to account for this short-term uncertainty has been proposed to improve the BS model. This allows for investigations to address issues related to how the real option value of a government subsidy is affected. A Monte Carlo simulation was performed to take into account the noise in the estimation. A sensitivity analysis further revealed that this discrepancy is largely affected by the values of the relevant parameters in the short-term uncertainty model. We found that the short-term uncertainty has a significant effect on private revenue and government subsidy and that the changes of the latter are more sensitive to the change of short-term uncertainty. The value of the relevant variables of short-term uncertainty determined the fluctuation of the revenue. The mean value and revenue had a positive correlation. The reverting speed and revenue showed a negative correlation. The short-term volatility had a positive correlation toward the fluctuation range of the revenue. The simulation results indicate that this enhanced method can produce more accurate information for a better assessment of the PPP project under a wide range of uncertainty scenarios, allowing for the best decision making by the government

Historical Accountability for Equitable, Efficient, and Sustainable Allocation of the Right to Emit Wastewater in China

Establishing policies for controlling water pollution through discharge permits creates the basis for emission permit trading. Allocating wastewater discharge permits is a prerequisite to initiating the market. Past research has focused on designing schemes to allocate discharge permits efficiently, but these schemes have ignored differences among regions in terms of emission history. This is unfortunate, as fairness may dictate that areas that have been allowed to pollute in the past will receive fewer permits in the future. Furthermore, the spatial scales of previously proposed schemes are not practical. In this article, we proposed an information entropy improved proportional allocation method, which considers differences in GDP, population, water resources, and emission history at province spatial resolution as a new way to allocate waste water emission permits. The allocation of chemical oxygen demand (COD) among 30 provinces in China is used to illustrate the proposed discharge permit distribution mechanism. In addition, we compared the pollution distribution permits obtained from the proposed allocation scheme with allocation techniques that do not consider historical pollution and with the already established country plan. Our results showed that taking into account emission history as a factor when allocating wastewater discharge permits results in a fair distribution of economic benefits

Allocating Water in the Mekong River Basin during the Dry Season

With population numbers increasing and anthropogenic climate change, the amount of available fresh water is declining. This scenario can lead to an increase in the occurrence of water conflicts, especially in transboundary river basins. Prevention strategies to avert water conflicts by designing a fair, efficient, and sustainable water allocation framework are needed. Taking into account the socioeconomic and environmental differences among the riparian countries is one of the most important features an allocation scheme should have. In this article, bankruptcy and bargaining games were used to construct a new weighted water allocation model. The proposed method was applied to allocate the contested water capital of the Mekong River during the dry season. The Mekong River originates in China and flows through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam. The results of the allocation showed that, except for China and Vietnam, all the other riparian countries get their full claim of the water demand from the river. The water allocation payoffs satisfy individual rationality, Pareto optimality, and maximization of the group utility. Therefore, the allocation outputs from the proposed scheme are self-enforceable and sustainable

The Impact of Upstream Sub-Basins’ Water Use on Middle Stream and Downstream Sub-Basins’ Water Security at Country-Basin Unit Spatial Scale and Monthly Temporal Resolution

Water, in most of the transboundary river basins, is a bone of contention among their riparian states. Taking this into account, this article assessed the monthly impact of upstream water withdrawal on the water security of middle stream and downstream sub-basins at a country-basin mesh spatial resolution. Roughly 2.18 billion people in 442 sub-basin areas experience water stress intensification by less than 1% throughout the year. In addition, 2.12 billion people in 336 sub-basin areas experience water stress level change, from no water stress to one of the water stress categories, for at least one month as the result of upstream withdrawal. Even though there is a clear upstream impact in many of the basins, water disputes with severe social, economic, political, and environmental consequences are nonexistent. This might be an indication that grave water disputes are the result of complex socio-economic and political interactions, not merely because of water deficits due to upstream water withdrawal. Therefore, understanding this relationship is crucial in identifying inflection points for water conflicts within transboundary river basins

Assessment of Water Footprints of Consumption and Production in Transboundary River Basins at Country-Basin Mesh-Based Spatial Resolution

Water is unevenly distributed globally. This uneven distribution is the reason behind the differences among geographical areas in terms of their water footprint of consumption and production. This gives the global trade of goods a unique feature. This characteristic of the water footprint might be used to address water scarcity and conflicts because water availability also has the same trend. Transboundary river basins are freshwater resources with a high probability of water scarcity and conflict because the water is claimed by multiple sovereign countries. In order to design sharing mechanisms for transboundary river basins that incorporate virtual water concept, it is key to identify the virtual water balance of country-basin units. A study addressing this research gap is not yet available. This article identified and discussed net virtual water importer and exporter sub-basins of transboundary rivers at a country-basin mesh based spatial resolution. The results of our study show that out of the 565 country-basin units surveyed in this article 391, 369, and 461 are net gray, green, and blue virtual water importers respectively. These sub-basins covers 58.37%, 47.52% and 57.52% of the total area covered by transboundary river basins and includes 0.65, 1.9, and around 2 billion people, respectively. The results depict that not only the water endowment of sub-basins is a determining factor for their water footprint of consumption and production, but also their social, economic, and demographic profiles. Furthermore, the water footprint of consumption and production within most of the country-basin units have a global feature. Hence, sustainable water management schemes within border-crossing basins should take into account not only the local but also the global water footprints of consumption and production. This can offer more options for sharing transboundary river basins water capital, thereby minimizing the probability of water scarcity and water conflicts

Compilation of Water Resource Balance Sheets under Unified Accounting of Water Quantity and Quality, a Case Study of Hubei Province

This article discusses the issues caused by traditional water resource development and utilization, as well as policy issues in China that have led to a water crisis. The article proposes a theoretical approach along with a quantitative accounting of water resources, in order to solve these problems. To improve the value accounting method for water resources, the study focuses on a unified accounting perspective of water quantity and quality, allowing for an evaluation of water use efficiency and quality. The study uses prefecture-level cities in Hubei Province as a case study and finds that the water use efficiency of these cities has constantly improved, while water quality has shown an annual improvement. Water resource assets, liabilities, and net assets have increased, but with fluctuations. The study shows differences in water resource assets, liabilities, and net assets in the eastern, central, and western regions of Hubei Province. The unified accounting perspective of water quantity and quality provides a new idea and method for the preparation of water resource balance sheets and will effectively improve the management level and efficiency of water resources

Decoupling of economic growth and resources-environmental pressure in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, China

The increase in the consumption of resources required for social progress and the continuous deterioration of the ecological environment has brought heavy pressure to the sustainable development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB). This article applied the Hybrid Entropy-TOPSIS method to evaluate the resources-environmental pressure (REP), used the Logarithmic Mean Divisa Index (LMDI) method to identify driving factors, and utilized the Tapio decoupling model to analyze the relationship between economic growth and REP in 110 cities in the YREB. The main contribution of this study is the dynamic evolution of the decoupling relationship from perspective of the city unit, and profoundly depicts the interaction between resources-environmental factors and economic growth. The main results are as follows: (1) In the time dimension, the REP of 74.55% of the YREB's cities has continued to increase over 15 years, and the numerical differences between different cities are significant. In 2019, 24.55% of cities were under medium-pressure and high-pressure levels. In the spatial dimension, the city's REP is more prominent in the eastern part of the YREB and more decentralized in the central and western regions. The internal composition analysis of REP shows that the pressure caused by pollutant discharge is slowly reduced, and the pressure caused by unreasonable consumption of resources is increasing year by year. (2) The economic effect (EE) is the most important driving factor to influence REP in YREB, while the pressure intensity effect (PIE) is one of the main driving factors to influence the REP. In the temporal dimension, the development structural effect (DSE) is not significant. However, in the spatial dimension, it has more prominent characteristics in the west. The effect of population effects (PE) on REP is very weak. (3) The decoupling relationship between economic growth and REP shows a trend of weak decoupling from 2006 to 2010, strong decoupling from 2011 to 2015, and the coexistence of multiple types of decoupling from 2016 to 2019. In terms of spatial distribution characteristics in 2019, the strong decoupling (48 cities), weak decoupling (37 cities), and deteriorating decoupling (25 cities) showed uniform distribution in the YREB. In addition, the decoupling stability of 21 cities is poor, mainly resource-dependent cities distributed in Guizhou, Anhui, and Jiangsu Provinces. This article will provide a reference for the high-quality development and ecological environment protection of regions in the YREB