Alleviating Water Scarcity in the North China Plain: The Role of Virtual Water and Real Water Transfer

2017 ◽  
Vol 50 (3) ◽  
pp. 205-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhuoying Zhang ◽  
Hong Yang ◽  
Minjun Shi
Keyword(s):  
Water Scarcity ◽  
North China Plain ◽  
North China ◽  
Virtual Water ◽  
Water Transfer ◽  
The North ◽  
The North China Plain

China: The South–North Water Transfer Project—is it justified?

Water Policy ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeremy Berkoff
Keyword(s):  
Water Scarcity ◽  
Agricultural Development ◽  
North China Plain ◽  
North China ◽  
Water Transfer ◽  
The South ◽  
The North ◽  
The North China Plain ◽  
North Water ◽  
Stressed Region

The South-North Water Transfer Project (SNWTP), if fully developed, could divert 40-50 km3/yr from the Yangtse basin to the North China plain, alleviating water scarcity for 300-325M people living in what even then will be a highly water-stressed region. Construction of the next stage, diverting up to 20 km3 at a cost of about $17,000M (including $7000M in ancillary costs), is to start in 2002/3. A recent World Bank study suggests that the project is economically attractive. This conclusion has been disputed by the World Wildlife Fund (now the Worldwide Fund for Nature). This paper concludes that little confidence can be placed in either of these analyses. It therefore seeks to throw light on how the project fits within a broader regional and agricultural development setting. The project is hugely expensive, and would at the margin tend to preserve water in low value agriculture and require the resettlement of upwards of 300,000 people. On the other hand, the pace and scale of socio-economic change in China are without precedent, and adjustment problems on the North China plain are greatly exacerbated by water scarcity. Reallocation of water from irrigation to municipal and industrial uses or to the environment is socially divisive and in some instances physically impracticable. The transfer project would greatly alleviate these difficulties. It is these arguments (which are ultimately political and pragmatic), rather than those based strictly on economic or food security concerns, that make the Government's decision to proceed with the project fully understandable.

scholarly journals Virtual versus real water transfers within China

2005 ◽  
Vol 361 (1469) ◽  
pp. 835-842 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jing Ma ◽  
Arjen Y Hoekstra ◽  
Hao Wang ◽  
Ashok K Chapagain ◽  
Dangxian Wang
Keyword(s):  
South China ◽  
Water Scarcity ◽  
North China ◽  
Virtual Water ◽  
Water Transfer ◽  
Qualitative Description ◽  
The North ◽  
Food Deficit ◽  
Virtual Water Flow ◽  
North Water

North China faces severe water scarcity—more than 40% of the annual renewable water resources are abstracted for human use. Nevertheless, nearly 10% of the water used in agriculture is employed in producing food exported to south China. To compensate for this ‘virtual water flow’ and to reduce water scarcity in the north, the huge south–north Water Transfer Project is currently being implemented. This paradox—the transfer of huge volumes of water from the water-rich south to the water-poor north versus transfer of substantial volumes of food from the food-sufficient north to the food-deficit south—is receiving increased attention, but the research in this field has not yet reached further than rough estimation and qualitative description. The aim of this paper is to review and quantify the volumes of virtual water flows between the regions in China and to put them in the context of water availability per region. The analysis shows that north China annually exports about 52 billion m 3 of water in virtual form to south China, which is more than the maximum proposed water transfer volume along the three routes of the Water Transfer Project from south to north.

scholarly journals Role of Ammonia on the Feedback Between AWC and Inorganic Aerosol Formation During Heavy Pollution in the North China Plain

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (9) ◽  
pp. 1675-1693 ◽  
Author(s):  
Baozhu Ge ◽  
Xiaobin Xu ◽  
Zhiqiang Ma ◽  
Xiaole Pan ◽  
Zhe Wang ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
North China Plain ◽  
North China ◽  
Aerosol Formation ◽  
The North ◽  
The North China Plain ◽  
Heavy Pollution ◽  
Inorganic Aerosol

The Impacts of Water Transfer on Thermal Structure of Shallow Reservoir

2013 ◽  
Vol 477-478 ◽  
pp. 864-869
Author(s):  
Guang Yu Ma ◽  
Bin Bin Wu ◽  
Hong Jiang
Keyword(s):  
Sustainable Management ◽  
North China Plain ◽  
North China ◽  
Thermal Structure ◽  
Water Transfer ◽  
Structure Model ◽  
Flow Rates ◽  
Shallow Reservoir ◽  
The North ◽  
The North China Plain

A two-dimensional numerical model was built for the typical shallow reservoir with serious thermal pollution in the North China Plain. After calibration and validation, four scenarios were developed to study the impacts of water transfer on thermal structure. Model results showed that the hydrodynamic and water temperature could be well simulated. The effects of water transfer on thermal structure showed in decreasing temperature rises, which was more remarkable for regions far away from the releasing point of thermal discharge. In terms of reducing temperature, 45.5 m3/s was the most efficient inflow rate among the four representative flow rates. This study provides useful information for reservoir sustainable management. Keywords: water transfer, temperature, numerical simulation, Douhe reservoir.

Multiphase chemistry experiment in Fogs and Aerosols in the North China Plain (McFAN): integrated analysis and intensive winter campaign 2018

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guo Li ◽  
Hang Su ◽  
Uwe Kuhn ◽  
Guangjie Zheng ◽  
Ulrich Pöschl ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
North China Plain ◽  
North China ◽  
Chem Phys ◽  
High Humidity ◽  
The North ◽  
The North China Plain ◽  
Low Humidity ◽  
Haze Formation ◽  
Chemistry Experiment

<p>In the recent decade, frequently occurring severe haze events in the North China Plain (NCP) have triggered numerous studies on the underlying formation mechanisms, and the contribution of multiphase chemistry on haze formation becomes one of the focal points. The Multiphase chemistry experiment in Fogs and Aerosols in the North China Plain (McFAN) investigated the physicochemical mechanisms leading to haze formation with a focus on the contributions of multiphase processes in aerosols and fogs. We integrated observations on multiple platforms with regional and box model simulations to identify and characterize the key oxidation processes producing sulfate, nitrate and secondary organic aerosols. An outdoor twin-chamber system was deployed to conduct kinetic experiments under real atmospheric conditions in comparison to literature kinetic data from laboratory studies. The experiments were spanning multiple years since 2017 and an intensive field campaign was performed in the winter of 2018. The location of the site minimizes fast transition between clean and polluted air masses, and regimes representative for the North China Plain were observed at the measurement location in Gucheng near Beijing. The consecutive multi-year experiments document recent trends of PM<sub>2.5 </sub>pollution and corresponding changes of aerosol physical and chemical properties, enabling in-depth investigations of established and newly proposed chemical mechanisms of haze formation. This study is mainly focusing on the data obtained from the winter campaign 2018. To investigate multiphase chemistry, the results are presented and discussed by means of three characteristic cases: low humidity, high humidity and fog. We find a strong relative humidity dependence of aerosol chemical compositions, suggesting an important role of multiphase chemistry. Compared with the low humidity period, both PM<sub>1</sub> and PM<sub>2.5 </sub>show higher mass fraction of secondary inorganic aerosols (SIA, mainly as nitrate, sulfate and ammonium) and secondary organic aerosols (SOA) during high humidity and fog episodes. The changes in aerosol composition further influence aerosol physical properties, e.g., with higher aerosol hygroscopicity parameter k and single scattering albedo SSA under high humidity and fog cases. The campaign-averaged aerosol pH is 5.1 ± 0.9, of which the variation is mainly driven by the aerosol water content (AWC) concentrations. Overall, the McFAN experiment provides new evidence of the key role of multiphase reactions in regulating aerosol chemical composition and physical properties in polluted regions.</p><p>References:</p><ul><li>Y. Cheng, et al., <em>Sci. Adv.</em>, 2016, 2, e1601530.</li> <li>G. J. Zheng, et al., <em>Atmos. Chem. Phys.</em>, 2015, 15, 2969-2983.</li> <li>W. Tao, et al., <em>Atmos. Chem. Phys.</em>, 2020, 20, 11729-11746.</li> <li>H. Su, et al., <em>Acc. Chem. Res.</em>, 53, 2034-2043.</li> <li>G. Zheng, et al., <em>Science</em>, 2020, 369, 1374-377.</li> <li>G. Li, et al., <em>Faraday Discussions</em>, 2021, DOI: 10.1039/D0FD00099J.</li> </ul>

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