Abstract
Inter‐basin water transfer projects (IBWTPs) offer one of the most important means to solve the mismatch between supply and demand of regional water resources. IBWTPs have impacts on the complex ecosystems of the areas from which water is diverted and to which water is received. These impacts increase damage or risk to regional ecological security and human wellbeing. However, current methods make it difficult to achieve comprehensive analysis of the impacts of whole ecosystems, because of the long distance between ecosystems and the inconsistency of impact events. In this study, a model was proposed for the analysis of the impacts of IBWTPs on regional ecological security. It is based on the telecoupling framework, and the Driver‐Pressure‐State‐ Impact‐Response (DPSIR) model was used to improve the analysis procedure within the telecoupling framework. The Middle Line of the South‐to‐North Water Diversion Project was selected as a case study to illustrate the specific analysis procedure. We realized that information sharing is a key issue in the management of regional security, and that the ecological water requirement, in the form of a single index, could be used to quantitatively assess the impacts on ecological security from IBWTPs.
Highlights
Inter-basin water transfer projects (IBWTPs) offer an effective solution to the uneven distribution of water resources [1]
The Middle Line of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project was taken as a case to illustrate the specific application of the analysis model, for impacts of IBWTPs on regional ecological security
Based on the analysis model for impacts of IBWTPs, the ecological water requirement (EWR) of every ecosystem, which influenced by the IBWTPs, should be ensured above the minimum ecological water requirements (mEWRs), during the operation of IBWTPs
Summary
Inter-basin water transfer projects (IBWTPs) offer an effective solution to the uneven distribution of water resources [1]. IBWTPs affect land use, the hydrological environment, the surrounding landscape, and the vegetation of water diversion areas, water receiving areas, and the areas along the water transfer route. These changes lead to changes in ecosystem evolution and ecological security [6]. The Middle Route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project of China has resulted in changes to land use across the Danjiangkou Reservoir catchment area, intended to reduce urban and agricultural run-off [9]. The man-made water diversion project was conducted in the Tarim River and Hei River Basin in order to prevent the vegetation degradation and to reach the goal of ecological restoration [10,11,12]
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