Abstract
With the development of the economy and urbanization, the contradiction between water use and supply is growing, and it is necessary to explore the relationship and evolutionary process of water flow in the water system from a systematic perspective. Although previous studies have analyzed the water system from a holistic point of view, a comprehensive system that considers virtual water flows is currently lacking. The present study establishes a seven-compartment virtual water system in Tibet in 2012 by combining ecological network analysis (ENA) with the input–output model. Socio-economic sectors and virtual water flows are expressed as network compartments and pathways. The information-based ENA is used to evaluate the characteristics of the virtual water system in Tibet, including its robustness and trade-offs between network efficiency and redundancy. Network control analysis is introduced to characterize the control and dependence intensities over the system, while ecological relationships between pairwise compartments are calculated using network utility analysis. The results indicate that Tibet’s virtual water system has close to optimal robustness, with higher redundancy and limited efficiency. The agriculture compartment is the main controller, while the energy supply compartment is the most dependent on the virtual water system. The overall systematic relationship that the system has is generally mutualistic and synergistic, the majority of which have a positive relationship, although the control and exploitation relationships are dominant. These results can be used to improve network robustness and are of great significance to the sustainable development of the virtual water system in Tibet.
Highlights
Water is a critical resource for human survival, it is a strategic resource for national development [1]
The average mutual information (AMI) shows the capacity of the system to operate in an effective organization, while Hc reflects the capacity of the system to maintain its own stability in case of environmental disturbance [15]
The present study calculates the virtual water flows for Tibet in 2012 using an I-O model and establishes a seven-compartment virtual water network model based on the ecological network analysis (ENA) method
Summary
Water is a critical resource for human survival, it is a strategic resource for national development [1]. Water dissipation, water pollution, and the destruction of the natural water cycle have led to water security concerns, and the uneven distribution of water resources has further led to regional water shortages [5,6,7]. Available water resources account for only 3% of total water resources, while the annual average consumption is 300–400 times that of coal, oil, and other non-renewable resources [8]. China is among the world’s top 13 countries with water shortages, where the water resources that are available per capita are only a quarter of the global average. The available water per capita in this region is about half the national average. The contradiction between water demand and supply is prominent in western China [9]
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