Assessing carrying capacity of regional water resources in karst areas, southwest China: a case study

Water resource is an important and irreplaceable resource for human society. With the increasing shortage of water resources, the study of water resources carrying capacity (WRCC) has become a key and hot issue in the field of water resources science. In this study, a typical karst area (Guiyang) is selected as the research object. And two concepts of WRCC are proposed to assess scales of population, agriculture and economy which could be supported by local water resources, and the two kinds of WRCC are the carrying capacity of consumption amount of water resource (CCCWR) and the carrying capacity of total amount of water resource (CCTWR). Results showed that whether taking China or Guizhou Province as the reference area, WRCC of Guiyang was very low from 2003 to 2017, and the potential of WRCC was also low. Apart from actual values of cultivated land were lower than values of CCCWR and CCTWR for cultivated land, actual values of GDP and population were all greater than that of CCCWR and CCTWR for GDP and population. While there is a close positive correlation between total water resources and precipitation. When comparing Wuhan (a non-karst region) with Guiyang (a typical karst area), although the two cities have the same total amounts of water resources, Wuhan's water resources consumption amounts are nearly four times that of Guiyang. The problem of engineering water shortage in karst areas is very serious, and karst landforms have an important impact on the use of water resources in karst areas. To ensure the effective utilization of water resources in Guiyang, reasonable policies and measures should be formulated and put into effect.

Automated summary

Water resource is an important and irreplaceable resource. The study of water resources carrying capacity has become a hot issue. This study focuses on a typical karst area and proposes two concepts to assess the scales of population, agriculture, and economy supported by local water resources. The results show that Guiyang has very low water resources carrying capacity and suffers from serious engineering water shortage in karst areas.