Study on Quantification and Spatial-Temporal Distribution of Water Shortage in Provinces and Regions of the Yellow River Basin Based on Emergy-GIS Method

The Yellow River is an important source of water in the northwest and north China. The Yellow River basin is rich in land and mineral resources, and plays an important role in the strategic pattern of Chinese economic and social development. Meanwhile, the Yellow River Basin is a resource-deficient area with huge water supply pressure. In order to quantify the degree of water shortage in the nine provinces in the Yellow River Basin, this paper proposes a series of emergy evaluation indicators of water shortage degree, which are divided into four categories: basic emergy index, economic subsystem index, social subsystem index and ecological environment subsystem index, and constructs an evaluation index system of water shortage degree in the Yellow River Basin. The economic and social data and water use data of provinces in 2011, 2014 and 2017 are selected as the basic data, and the above emergy index is calculated by coupling renewable energy (solar energy, wind energy, earth rotation energy and rainfall chemical energy) with the non-renewable energy in the basic data. Furthermore, the spatial-temporal distribution feature of water shortage in each province are described by Geographic Information System (GIS). The results show that: (1) On the time scale, the water shortage in the Yellow River Basin shows an increasing trend in 2011, 2014 and 2017. (2) On the spatial scale, Inner Mongolia has the largest degree of water shortage, followed by Ningxia, Gansu, Shaanxi, Qinghai and Shandong, and Shanxi, Henan and Sichuan have less water shortage. This study can provide reference for optimal allocation of water resources in the basin, provide decision-making basis for enhanced water conservation and strict management of water intake in the basin, and provide data support for sustainable development of the basin.

Keywords: Water shortage degree; Emergy index system; Spatial-temporal distribution; Yellow River Basin