Water resource assessment based on the water footprint for Lijiang City

Abstract

With growing water scarcity and water quality deterioration, water resource assessment has become a major focus of research in many areas of the world. Understanding water consumption and its structure is essential for assessing a city's ability to achieve sustainable water resource utilisation. Based on the concept of the water footprint (WFP), we quantified direct and indirect water consumption in various sectors and used a water stress index (WSI) and water self-sufficiency (WSS) to evaluate the sustainability of water resource use in Lijiang City. The results showed that the WFP of the city in 2008 was 995 Mm³, and that the average WFP per capita was 815 m³, with a WSI of 8.36% and WSS of 100%. Agricultural water use was responsible for 93% of total local water consumption, with 62% for crops and 38% for animals. Lijiang City will face little stress from water resource use in the short term; however, its water use efficiency is relatively low, and the current water resource use is unsustainable in the long term. We recommend the assessment of direct and indirect water use as a necessary step in developing effective water management policies.

Keywords:

• water resource assessment
• water footprint
• virtual water
• water consumption structure

Acknowledgement

The authors acknowledge financial support from One Hundred Talents Program and Innovation Projects of Chinese Academy of Sciences (08I4071D10, KZCX2-YW-453, D-2009-02) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (71003090).