River basin water resource compensation characteristics by set pair analysis: the Dongjiang example

Abstract

Flood and drought coexist in many river basins, thus analyses of water resource compensation characteristics become important, since they are the foundation for rational utilization of floodwaters. In this research, set pair analysis (SPA), a relatively new uncertainty analysis method, is used to study the dry and wet compensation characteristics of water resource parameters. In addition, fuzzy membership and grey correlation degree are adopted to test the result of set pair analysis. The Dongjiang River is taken as an example and the analyzed parameters include precipitation and mean discharge from different hydrological stations. The results show that there is a high homeotype-encountering chance for precipitation and mean discharge between different stations for both dry and wet conditions; thus the compensation capacity is small. Although the mean discharge is synchronous with the precipitation in the river basin, there exists a certain degree of shift, indicating possible utilization of floodwater on a small scale. The results from SPA are consistent with that from a traditional analysis method, showing that SPA is a promising alternative method for studying river basin water resource compensation characteristics, in particular for exploring potential complements embedded in noncomplementary general features.