Water security index of cities and regions based on the vitae system

Abstract

As the development of human society and economy, water security problem has increasingly becoming an crucial part of comprehensive security of a society. Obviously, the definition of water security needs an interdisciplinary and integrative perspective. In this paper, the connotation of water security is discussed based on the analysis of the relationship between environmental changes and security issues, and the definition of water security is suggested. With higher and higher frequency and consequences, water accidents are considered as a new part of the water security. Water security assessment should consider not only the situation of water resources, but the related factors of environment, ecology, society, political, economy. Government' and organizations' efforts should be integrated in the concepts of water security. Viewed as vitae system, there are three properties of the water security of cities or regions: survivability, vitality and conviviality. Thus, the Vitae Water Security Index is introduced as a new quantity to measure the security level in cities or regions. The index is a weighted average of the three sub-indexes.