Forecast and optimal allocation of production, living and ecology water consumption in Zhangye, China

The water crisis is one of three crises that are persecuting the world. China is among the countries that face severe water shortages. Water scarcity and water pollution have seriously affected China's sustainable development in terms of the economy and society. Water resources per capita of China is only one quarter of the world's average. In addition, about 70 percent of China's rivers, lakes, and reservoirs are affected by pollution. Due to limited water resources, a crucial issue for the sustainable development of the watershed is how to resolve the human/nature competition for water and how to achieve the coordinated development of the economy, society and ecology. On the basis of defining water consumption for production, living and ecology (WPLE), this paper proposes a framework for forecasting and optimally allocating WPLE. Using Zhangye, in the middle reaches of the Heihe River Basin as the case study area, we forecasted and optimally allocated WPLE under three development scenarios, i.e. the conventional development scenario (CDS), the economy-priority development scenario (EPDS) and the environmentally sustainable development scenario (ESDS). In 2010, the proportions of WPLE in Zhangye were 87.73%, 2.74% and 9.53%, respectively. In 2020, the proportions of WPLE will be 74.80%, 4.50% and 20.70% under the CDS, 76.16%, 5.27% and 18.57% under the EPDS, and 74.99%, 4.51% and 20.50% under the ESDS. In the future, the proportion of production water consumption of Zhangye will drastically decrease, while the proportion of ecological water consumption will significantly increase. The main contradiction of the co-evolution of WPLE of Zhangye is the competitiveness of production and living water consumption with ecological water consumption.