Abstract
The ecological environment of urban water resources in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) is in a huge challenge; yet, while myriad studies have investigated the carrying capacity or sustainable utilization of Chinese water resources, few to none have looked at the inclusive sustainable development of water resources. In this article, a new concept of urban water inclusive sustainability (UWIS) is firstly proposed, and the conceptual framework of ASFII and a five-dimensional indicator system are developed, integrating availability, sustainability, friendliness, inclusiveness and innovation. The panel data of 38 cities in the YREB are adopted from 2008 to 2018 to measure UWIS and five development indexes by the TOPSIS (technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution) and entropy method. Moreover, the characteristics of the temporal–spatial evolution of the overall system and subsystems coupling coordination are described using the coupling coordination degree model. Key factors that hinder UWIS are identified through the obstacle degree model. The results indicate that the overall UWIS showed a gradual upward trend at a lower to medium level from 2008 to 2018 and a friendliness > sustainability > inclusiveness > innovation > availability index. The UWIS from high to low is YRDUA (Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration), MRYRUA (middle reaches of the Yangtze River urban agglomeration) and CCUA (Chengdu–Chongqing urban agglomeration). The 38 cities are in low-level coordination, and their temporal characteristics show a trend of economy > science and technology > water resources > environment > societal system, YRDUA > MRYRUA > CCUA. The spatial differentiation is manifested as high in the east and low in the west. The main obstacles come from 12 factors, such as the water resources utilization rate, etc. The findings of our study will be a scientific reference for the Chinese government to track UWIS and ensure urban water resources security in the YREB.
Highlights
The Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) is the river basin economic belt with the largest population and industrial scale in the world
The Yangtze River Economic Belt is in a huge challenge for ecological environment and support capacity of urban water resources, and it is urgent to solve the problems of sustainability of water resources and coordinated development between cities in the YREB
We firstly proposed a new concept of urban water inclusive sustainability (UWIS), which expands the connotation of water resource efficiency and carrying capacity
Summary
The Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) is the river basin economic belt with the largest population and industrial scale in the world. The Yangtze River Economic Belt is in a huge challenge for ecological environment and support capacity of urban water resources, and it is urgent to solve the problems of sustainability of water resources and coordinated development between cities in the YREB. It is necessary to integrate the concept of inclusive growth and sustainable development into the research of urban water resources. Since the inclusive and sustainable development of water resources of cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt is crucial, the following questions have arisen and are puzzling water resources researchers and policymakers:. (4) How to identify the key factors in the water resources, economic, social, environmental and scientific and technological subsystems that promote or hinder the inclusive sustainability of water resources of cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt?. We hope our findings will be a scientific reference for public decision makers to determine that, in the integral water management cycle, water resource management should be carried out under the paradigm of water inclusive sustainability
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