Spatiotemporal evolution of water resource sustainability in Shaanxi (China) from 2010 to 2020 based on an adapted water resources ecological footprint model

Abstract

This study used an adapted water resources ecological footprint model with two sub-models to assess water resources’ status and usage. One is the water consumption ecological footprint, encompassing household, productive, and ecological consumptions. The other is the water pollution ecological footprint, analyzed primary pollution indicators: chemical oxygen demand (COD) and ammonia nitrogen (NH₃) emissions. Results revealed that 89% of the total water resources ecological footprint was attributed to consumption, whereas only 11% was due to pollution. The study found a gradual increase in water resources ecological footprint from 2010-2020, with Xi’an consistently exhibiting the highest value. Despite a slight reduction in water resources ecological pressure due to new environmental policies, the carrying capacity continued to decline annually. Encouragingly, there was a noticeable improvement in water use efficiency. This study advances theory and implementation of water resources ecological footprint, and elucidates the interrelationship among economic development, water resource pressure, and utilization.

Keywords:

• water resources ecological footprint
• spatiotemporal variation
• sustainability
• water resources carrying capacity
• water resources ecological pressure

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank the reviewers and the editors for their careful and valuable editing and suggestions, which greatly improved the quality of the manuscript.

Author Contributions

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Xiaofei Li and Dawei Mu. Conceptualization, methodology, writing - review & editing, supervision, funding acquisition were performed by Peiyue Li. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Xiaofei Li, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. Jifa Liu provided useful suggestions to the study. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Data availability

The author declares that all- data confirming the results of this study are available in the article.

Competing Interests

The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose.

Additional information

Funding

The research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42072286 and 41761144059), the Qinchuangyuan “Scientist + Engineer” Team Development Program of the Shaanxi Provincial Department of Science and Technology (2022KXJ-005), the Fok Ying Tong Education Foundation (161098), and the National Ten Thousand Talent Program (W03070125; Fok Ying Tung Education Foundation.