Water-saving regionalization in China based on PCA-HCA model
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Abstract:
China has the highest degree of water resources stress. Due to large diverse geographical and climatic characteristics and uneven temporal and spatial distribution of water resources, current water-saving work is still facing problems such as regional imbalance, insufficient potential excavation, and difficult implementation of water-saving measures. Under the background of a series of major water-saving strategies such as the “National Water Conservation Action Plan”, researching water-saving zoning in China is of great significance to scientifically and reasonably promote the implementation of water-saving policies.The current situation of national water-saving zoning in the three major fields including agriculture, industry, and urban living in existing policy documents and academic papers was analyzed in detail through literature research. 31 provincial administrative regions were taken as the basic unit, and the principles of water-saving regionalization were proposed. Fourteen indicators from five aspects were selected to construct the index system of water-saving regionalization including water resources conditions, social and economic conditions, agricultural water use characteristics, industrial water use characteristics and domestic water use characteristics. The coupled method of principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) was adopted to delimit water-saving zoning. The characteristics of water resources, economy and society, and water use of different fields in the six water-saving zones were analyzed.Results showed that China's water-saving zoning research was mainly concentrated in the field of agriculture, and there were few zoning studies in the field of industrial and urban water-saving. The main reason is that China's agricultural water-saving development started earlier, and agricultural water-saving zoning is greatly affected by regional and environmental factors, which have regularity in large-scale and mesoscale, and differentiation between regions. Industrial water saving is mainly affected by factors including industrial structure, technical conditions, and local policies, whose spatial structure is scattered. It is difficult to find the pattern of spatial differentiation on large-scale, mesoscale, and even small-scale. Urban water saving is mainly affected by factors including water resources conditions, economic and social development level, and living habits. It is regular from the perspective of large-scale and mesoscale and differentiated between regions. However, due to the relatively small proportion of urban domestic water use, the research on its water-saving zoning has not been paid enough attention. By the coupled method of principal component analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis, and tuning small part of the provinces according to the principle of concentration and contiguity in zoning, the 31 provincial administrative regions in China were divided into six water-saving subregions: northeast China (Liaoning, Jilin, Heilongjiang), north China (Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Shandong, Henan, Shaanxi), northwest China (Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia, Xinjiang), southeast coastal area of China (Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan), central China (Anhui, Jiangxi, Hubei, Hunan), and southwest China (Chongqing, Sichuan, Guizhou, Yunnan, Tibet). Feature analysis showed that there were significant differences among different regions, and the shortage of water resources and the development of the economy and society played a significant role in promoting water conservation.The six water-saving subregions are consistent with the existing zoning pattern, which shows that the zoning method established has good reliability. The research results can provide strong support for the rational determination of water-saving strategic layout and scientific formulation of water-saving promotion strategies in China.
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