The compilation of physical water supply and use table in Zhangye City

Abstract

The System of Environmental and Economic Accounting for Water (SEEAW) is an accounting framework exclusively on water resources, which was published by United Nations Statistics Division. The ability to address jointly the environmental, economic, and social aspects of water policy is central to Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). SEEAW has a unique contribution to make to IWRM because it is the only approach that integrates economic accounts with accounts for water use and supply in a framework that supports quantitative analysis. Based on SEEAW framework, this paper tries to start the implementation of SEEAW at regional level in China. According to the standardized information system which harmonizes information from different sources, various relevant departments, a physical water supply and use table (SUT) in Zhangye City, an arid area in Northwest China, is compiled. The results show that the characteristics of water use in Zhangye: the high proportion of farming water use, water distribution and flows within the economic system results in the few of water quantity. It seems that, in order to improve integrated water resources management in Zhangye City, it is necessary to promote the industrialization and urbanization level. For the future of water accounting practice in China, the author concludes that although there are considerable differences on water environment statistics between China and international standards currently, under the framework of international standards, effectively achieving data integration is the future direction. The SUT compilation in China has more feasibility in practice compared with other accounts in SEEAW.