Sharing from the authors
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set out a course to transform the world, calling on all countries -- whether poor or rich to act protecting the planet while promoting economic prosperity. The goals state that poverty eradication must go hand in hand with a range of strategies, including promoting economic growth, addressing social needs for education, health, social protection and employment opportunities, curbing climate change and protecting the environment. But global consumption and production drive global economic development and depend on the use of the natural environment and resources, of which the use of water resources and its evaluation is particularly critical.
Our book deepens the scientific understanding of five aspects of water resources management in river basins, which in turn provides scientific guidance for improving the efficiency of water use in river basins, alleviating water scarcity, increasing water productivity, and providing system solutions for direct and indirect water use and ecological environment and development for implementing the SDGs.
Specifically, it presents (1) Inland river basins should achieve system transformation from water resource management to water management as soon as possible. That is, to strengthen blue and green water co-ordination, surface and underground water co-management, in the water industry production, circulation, consumption of the whole industry chain to improve water use efficiency, and to deploy in the institutional arrangements and management policies. (2) The competition between the construction of new urbanization, industrial structure adjustment and ecological restoration is getting more and more fierce, and the scientific allocation of water consumption of the three is the key to the construction of a water-saving society and the prerequisite for achieving harmony between people and water in the river basin. (3) Managing agricultural water use in the river basin is the key to improve the water use efficiency in the river basin. We need to implement the "river chief system", practice the principle of urban and rural water use in common but with distinction, and ensure that agriculture conserves water, then supply urban/industrial water and improve water productivity in the river basin. (4) Climate change and human activities have jointly influenced the structure and pattern of water production, use and consumption in river basins, and it is important to control land use and industrial structure to manage water use and consumption in river basins. (5) The decision support system for water resources management not only realizes the dynamic coupling of basin water supply and demand balance data with production, domestic and ecological water allocation analysis models, which improves the decision support capability, but also provides a systematic analysis tool for understanding the possible impact of water allocation between basin segments.
