Physical and virtual water transfers and the impacts on regional ecosystem quality and resources

¹ State Key Laboratory of Hydrology-Water Resources and Hydraulic Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210098, China
² College of Hydrology and Water Resources, Hohai University, Nanjing, Jiangsu 210098, China
³ Institute of Water-saving Agriculture in Arid Areas of China, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China

^a Corresponding author: 20150027@hhu.edu.cn

Abstract

The environmental impacts analysis for water transfers are lacking. In this study, the impacts on ecosystem equality and resources due to physical and virtual water transfers were evaluated for the Hetao irrigation district, China. Results indicate: about 4.50×10⁹ m³ of water transferred from the Yellow River to the Hetao irrigation district during 2001-2010 and 2.92×10⁹ m³ water was flowed out from this district virtually simultaneously. The impacts of physical, virtual and net water inflow on ecosystem quality were 1.33×10⁹ m²·yr (positive), 867.60×10⁶ m²·yr (negative) and 465.70×10⁶ m²·yr (positive). The impacts on resources were 28.16×10⁹ MJ (positive) for physical water, 18.26×10⁹ MJ (negative) for virtual water and 9.89×10⁹ MJ (positive) for net water transfer. The environmental influences were more significant for middle areas. The flows of physical and virtual water have increased water stress in some already water scare regions. The increase of physical water flow-in in this district would be difficult due to high financial cost, while the increase of virtual water flow-in could be possible measures to relieve environmental influences. However, others factors such as the social or economic factors should also be considered