Unfolding the complexity in water reallocation decision-making in the Heihe River Basin, China

ABSTRACT

Water reallocation decision-making is a challenge faced by most river basins around the world. In this study, a system thinking framework was developed to structurally unfold the complex interactions of water reallocations with societal, economic and ecological subsystems in the Heihe River Basin in China. The results indicate that ecological degradations appeared much later than economic development. Slow-changing societal values and limited considerations of technological development and government regulations towards environmental protection contributed to the weak and untimely responses of water reallocations to ecological degradation. This framework can assist in strategic water reallocation decision-making in river basins.

KEYWORDS:

• Water reallocation decision-making
• river basin management
• ecological degradation
• systems-based solutions
• integrated qualitative and quantitative approach
• China

Author contributions

Y. Wei, A. Western, R. Ison and M. Sivapalan conceptualized and designed the study, analysed and interpreted the results. S. Wu and Z. Lu collected the data, conducted data analysis and interpreted the results. Y. Wei and S. Wu drafted the initial manuscript. All the authors edited and reviewed the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed at https://doi.org/10.1080/07900627.2022.2136145.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Australian Research Council [grant number FT130100247]; and the National Natural Science Foundation of China [grant numbers 41501464 and 91425303].