Incorporating ecosystem service value into water resource management in water-scarce cities

Abstract

The lack of carrying capacity of the water environment in water-scarce cities has highlighted the vulnerability of water ecosystems. Ecological water supply can no longer meet the needs of urban development, and the complexity of water ecosystems has led to unprecedented challenges in urban governance. This study improves the accounting framework for the water resource ecosystem service value (WESV) based on the System of Environmental and Economic Accounting and validates it with the case of Xi'an, the ancient capital of China. Based on the characterization of the changes in water resources assets, the WESV was accounted for by combining the equivalent factor with the water footprint method, and the impacts of socioeconomic and natural endowment factors on WESV were explored. The results showed that among the different ecosystem service types, water area contributed the most to the increase in ecosystem service value. The WESV reached 94.86 million US dollars in 2019, up 15.8 % from 2010. Regulating services are a core function, accounting for 81.4 % of the WESV. The declining value of the corrected provisioning service indicates a decreasing level of urban consumption of water ecosystems. Population density and the GDP positively drive WESV changes, and the effects of pressure factor and urbanization rate are negative. The contribution of natural endowment factors is large but characterized by instability. The findings indicate that WESV enhancement could help alleviate the urban water shortage problem. It provides a scientific basis to improve the transparency of urban water resource utilization and the water resources management level.