Surface- and Groundwater Quality Changes in Periods of Water Scarcity (Springer Theses)

The transpiration estimate derived from sap flux measurements for the same oil palm plantation 2. It was also similar to the highest transpiration rate among the four forest plots 2. Our oil palm and forest transpiration estimates are similar to transpiration rates reported for tropical forest sites in Indonesia and Australia 1. This suggests that oil palms can transpire at substantial rates under certain conditions, despite, e. In addition to the much lower re-evaporation of water to the atmosphere, rainfall interception by rubber plantations is 1.

The differences in transpiration and interception can explain the lower baseflow from oil palm dominated catchments as compared to rubber dominated catchments that we observed. Soil water infiltration capacities represented by Ks-values derived from ring infiltrometer experiments for different land-use types in the study region were reported to decrease from forest 47 cm hr -1 via rubber 7 cm hr -1 on harvesting paths, 7.

Tarigan and Sunarti, unpublished data. The much lower infiltration capacities in plantations as compared to forest are consistent with the observed strong decline of soil quality after forest conversion, i. C content plays a key-role in soil aggregation Franzluebbers , Bronick and Lal , while erosion brings deeper and denser soil layers to the soil surface. Thus, both are associated with lower soil permeability.

Such soil degradation after forest conversion was also observed in similar land-use types in Malaysia Gharibreza et al. Although the extent of soil degradation was similar between rubber and oil palm plantations, soil characteristics are more heterogeneous in oil palm plantations, i. This may explain the higher runoff as reflected by two-fold higher relative peak flows, i. In conjunction with the observed higher transpiration rates of oil palm as compared to rubber plantations, the increased runoff in oil palm plantations results in significantly less water being available for groundwater recharge after precipitation than in rubber plantations, and much less than in forested areas.

Thus, groundwater recharge may be less efficient in oil palm dominated catchments than in rubber dominated ones, which may add to water scarcity during dry periods. Similar reductions in dry period baseflows and increases in postprecipitation peak flows after forest conversion have been reported in a variety of studies e. Forests may act as sponges by enhancing infiltration rates and moisture retention because of the effects of organic matter and the root network on soil physical properties, and act as pumps by transpiring large amounts of water into the atmosphere see, e.

In our study, both land-use types replacing the forest may have reduced the sponge effect. Baseflow in dry periods may be as high as in forested areas if losses in infiltration capacity are outbalanced by much lower evapo transpiration rates in the newly established land-use systems, which is often the case. In our study, the rubber plantations are such an example. The oil palm plantations, however, are different: Combined, this can induce or enhance periodic water scarcity in oil palm dominated landscapes. Our results suggest that rainfall volume and seasonal patterns did not change significantly since the beginning of oil palm expansion in the study region.

Also, similar volumes of water are re-evaporated back into the atmosphere from oil palm plantations and forests, but the penetration of water into the soil is reduced in oil palm plantations. Thus, much precipitated water leaves the landscape as surface runoff, causing streamflow to be high during rainfall events; less water remains in the soil under oil palms than in forested areas and groundwater recharge is decreased. In consequence, wells may dry out earlier during dry periods in oil palm dominated regions, as it was reported by the majority of interviewed Bungku villagers.

The perception of extremely high water-use rates of oil palms as the main cause for increased seasonal water scarcity among some Bungku villagers does not match the results of our evapotranspiration and transpiration measurements. We also have indications that there are significant differences in eco-hydrological characteristics particularly in transpiration rates between oil palm and rubber plantations, as observed by several villagers.

Our matching of social perceptions and environmental measurements thus provides manifold explanations for changes in the physical water cycle. The major force behind these changes is the rapidly expanding oil palm business, which constitutes the main driver of deforestation and land-use change in the area Colchester et al.

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Changes in the local water cycle are not only caused by soil degradation under oil palms but also through the channelization of rivers and the draining of swamp areas by oil palm companies personal observations in the field and from satellite images. These shifts in the physical water flows mirror changing societal power relations that accompany the conversion of an originally forest-dominated area toward an intensively managed agroindustrial landscape see Beckert et al. Water, a formerly abundant common pool resource, today is becoming a scarce resource during dry seasons.

This capitalization increases social polarizations in the village between winners of land-use change and underprivileged social groups such as indigenous people or poorer farmers. In the light of decreasing access to land Colchester et al. Our social and environmental analysis of different components and processes of the hydrosocial cycle in Bungku thus clearly depicts the complexity of local water-society relations.

It serves as an example of how local land-use change triggers both material and discursive changes in the hydrosocial cycle, i. Water shortages were reported to occur more often since oil palm cultivation has become the dominant land use and large-scale deforestation has taken place. Several villagers strongly emphasized that oil palm is a major consumer of water and thus largely responsible for decreasing local water tables and water supplies. Analyses of environmental processes generally supported this perception and also confirmed differences between rubber and oil palm plantations.

However, there is some added eco-hydrological complexity to the local interpretations. Our evapotranspiration data indicate that oil palm plantations use about as much water as forests for transpiration. Rather than to high water use of oil palms per se, local water scarcity seems connected to the redistribution of water after precipitation at the landscape scale.

In natural ecosystems, e. Under oil palm plantations, however, precipitated water cannot well penetrate the eroded and compacted soil. Consequently, a significant amount of water leaves the landscape as runoff and less water is available for groundwater recharge. Large-scale conversion of natural forests to oil palm plantations thus induces or enhances periodic water scarcity.

We greatly thank all our Indonesian counterparts for their assistance during field work. Special thanks to all our Indonesian field assistants who made the extensive field work possible. Finally, we thank the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments. Soil nitrogen-cycling responses to conversion of lowland forests to oil palm and rubber plantations in Sumatra, Indonesia. Journal of Environmental Management Selling two environmental services: Ecological Economics 65 4: Hydrological impacts of biofuel production: Agricultural Water Management 1: Kecamatan Bajubang dalam angka Jambi dalam angka Assessing the eddy covariance technique for evaluating carbon dioxide exchange rates of ecosystems: Global Change Biology 9: Losses of nitrogen fertiliser under oil palm in Papua New Guinea: Water balance, and nitrogen in soil solution and runoff.

Soil Research 46 4: Sap flow in Bornean heath and dipterocarp forest trees during wet and dry periods. Pages in M. Comparison of frameworks for analyzing social-ecological systems. Ecology and Society 18 4: Disentangling intangible social-ecological systems. Global Environmental Change Cultural politics and the hydrosocial cycle: Geoforum 57 November The impact of forest use and reforestation on soil hydraulic conductivity in the Western Ghats of India: Journal of Hydrology 1: Contested territorialization and biophysical expansion of oil palm plantations in Indonesia.

Geoforum 64 August Ecology and social responsibility: Soil structure and management: The judged seriousness of an environmental loss is a matter of what caused it. Journal of Environmental Psychology 25 1: Environmental impacts of de forestation in the humid tropics: De forestation and dry season flow in the tropics: Journal of Tropical Forest Science 1 3: Hydrological functions of tropical forests: Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment 1: Highland-lowland interactions in the Ganges-Brahmaputra River Basin: Suspended sediment load in the tidal zone of an Indonesian river.

Hydrology and Earth System Science A study of evaporation from tropical rain forest—West Java. Journal of Hydrology 89 1: Committed carbon emissions, deforestation, and community land conversion from oil palm plantation expansion in West Kalimantan, Indonesia.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Effect of the replacement of tropical forests with tree plantations on soil organic carbon levels in the Jomoro district, Ghana. Plant and Soil 1: Perception and response to the challenge of poverty and environmental resource degradation in rural Nigeria: Journal of Environmental Psychology 24 3: Report of an independent investigation into land disputes and forced evictions in a palm oil estate. Oil palm expansion in South East Asia: Agricultural practices in oil palm plantations and their impact on hydrological changes, nutrient fluxes and water quality in Indonesia: Advances in Agronomy Does human perception of wetland aesthetics and healthiness relate to ecological functioning?

Soil carbon stocks decrease following conversion of secondary forests to rubber Hevea brasiliensis plantations. Rainfall partitioning in relation to forest structure in differently managed montane forest stands in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. Forest Ecology and Management Ecosystem functions of oil palm plantations: EFForTS discussion paper, no.

Associated Data

Ecological and socioeconomic functions across tropical land-use systems after rainforest conversion. Rainfall interception from a lowland tropical rainforest in Brunei. Journal of Hydrology Use of historical data as a decision support tool in watershed management: International Water Management Institute Assessment of socio-economic functions of tropical lowland transformation systems in Indonesia: Small-scale Forestry 8 3: Water infiltration and soil structure related to organic matter and its stratification with depth.

Soil and Tillage Research Pellegrino Cerri, and C. Soil carbon stocks and changes after oil palm introduction in the Brazilian Amazon. Global Change Biology Bioenergy 5 4: Land use changes and soil redistribution estimation using Cs in the tropical Bera Lake catchment, Malaysia. Annals of Forest Science Sap flow measurements using the radial flowmeter technique. Losses of soil carbon by converting tropical forest to plantations: Global Change Biology 21 9: Sensitivity and resistance of soil fertility indicators to land-use changes: Rescaling of access and property relations in a frontier landscape: Sociology and the environment: Is oil palm agriculture really destroying tropical biodiversity?

Conservation Letters 1 2: Global Change Biology 21 Kiran, V Reddy, and S. The groundwater recharge response and hydrologic services of tropical humid forest ecosystems to use and reforestation: Water cycling in a Bornean tropical rain forest under current and projected precipitation scenarios.

Water Resources Research Annual water balance and seasonality of evapotranspiration in a Bornean tropical rainforest. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology Methods for community participation. A complete guide for practitioners. Payments for environmental services in Indonesia: What if economic signals were lost in translation? Land Use Policy Community grievances and competing water claims in the Central Kalimantan oil palm sector.

We have never been modern. Eco-floristic sectors and deforestation threats in Sumatra: Biodiversity and Conservation 19 4: Watershed services of tropical forests: Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability 1 2: Interdisciplinary analysis of the environment: Environmental Conservation 38 2: Eine Anleitung zu qualitativem Denken. Measurements of transpiration in four tropical rainforest types of north Queensland, Australia. Studying the complexity of change: Ecology and Society 19 4: Water quality perception, a dynamic evaluation.

Journal of Environmental Psychology 4 3: Oil palm water use: Environmental and social impacts of oil palm plantations and their implications for biofuel production in Indonesia. Ecology and Society 17 1: In the eye of the stakeholder: A general framework for analyzing sustainability of social-ecological systems.

Analyzing complex water governance regimes: Environmental Science and Policy Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment Water Resources Research 37 3: Impacts of land use change on dry season flows across the tropics: Objective versus subjective measures of water clarity in hedonic property value models. Land Economics 77 4: Getting the measure of ecosystem services: Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment 11 5: Transpiration in an oil palm landscape: Cross-cultural perceptions of ecosystem services: Journal of Arid Environments Local perception of environmental change in a semi-arid area of northeast Brazil: Journal of Agricultural and Environmental Ethics 24 5: Forests and water - friends or foes?

Hydrological implications of deforestation and land degradation in semi-arid Tanzania. Methoden der empirischen Sozialforschung. Pages in B. Adat and indigeneity in Indonesia. Culture and entitlements between heterogeneity and self-ascription. Social power and the urbanization of water: Coupling human information and knowledge systems with social-ecological systems change: Characteristics of energy exchange and surface conductance of a tropical rain forest in peninsular Malaysia.

Pages in T. A multiscalar drought index sensitive to global warming: Journal of Climate 23 7: The social and ecological impacts of large-scale oil palm plantation development in Southeast Asia. Friends of the Earth, London, UK.

Water scarcity and oil palm expansion: social views and environmental processes

Perception and decisions in modeling coupled human and natural systems: Spatial and resource factors influencing high microbial diversity in soil. Applied and Environmental Microbiology 68 1: Asymmetric response to disturbance and recovery: The lower reaches of the HRB are the runoff disappearing area. According to the runoff data of the Langxinshan hydrological station, the discharge of the Heihe River has decreased since the year , and the shortage of water caused the Ejina Oasis to shrink considerably.

From the year , with the decrease of discharge from the Heihe River, the oasis of Ejina began to shrink and caused a series of environmental problems. In addition, both overgrazing and overcultivation have resulted in severe ecological deterioration in Ejina, where rivers and lakes are drying out, groundwater table is decreasing, water quality is deteriorating, and biodiversity is degrading. Water plays an important role in economic development and ecological balance of the middle reaches and lower reaches of the HRB.

Lacking of effective coordinated water management system, the amount of water flowing into the lower reaches has continually been decreasing. As a result, the rivers and lakes dried up intensively in the lower reaches, along with declining groundwater table and a high level of water mineralization.

Meanwhile, the area of vegetation coverage is reducing sharply, leading the HRB to becoming a source of dust for sandstorms in Northwestern China. Water scarcity is a long-standing and widespread problem in the HRB, and there is unevenly temporal and spatial water distribution. There are a series of reservoirs one large reservoir, 9 medium size reservoirs, and 89 small reservoirs in the basin and the total capacity is Influenced by topography, altitude, and atmospheric circulation at different scale, the spatial distribution of precipitation is extremely uneven in the middle reaches and lower reaches.

Generally, the annual average precipitation decreases from southeast to northwest Figure 2. Aside from precipitation, water resource is mainly supplied by springs, subsurface flow, and solid glacier in Qilian Mountain [ 21 ]. The previous studies have concluded that the yearly based rate of glacial retreating was around 0. In this sense, water scarcity is induced not only by the natural process, but also by irrational damage. The landscape structure and composition in the upper reaches of the HRB have been seriously changed, which inevitably reduced water availability in the lower reaches [ 21 ].

Meanwhile, water demand in HRB has increased considerably over the past half century. Since the year , the China government has paid much attention to the development of irrigation infrastructure. By the year , the number of reservoirs the small plain reservoirs and embankments with a volume less than thousand m 3 are not accounted in the middle reaches has come to 95, and the total storage capacity is up to million m 3 , 20 times more than that in the year As a result, the hydrology changed radically in the middle reaches, which is highlighted by the fact that the utilization rate of surface water increased by 19 times, the area of irrigated oasis expanded by Along with utilization of the surface water, the groundwater was also been explored, and the number of motor-pumped well had doubled from the year to the year [ 22 ].

The groundwater table had been steadily decreasing due to the overpumping and the decreasing of recharges. In fact, there is a very close interconnection between the surface runoff and groundwater in the HRB because of the water distribution characteristics of HRB, which partly determined the hydrological process [ 16 ].

Last but not least, as the intermediate linkage between the surface water and the groundwater, the volume of springs also shows a decreasing tend. In addition, the average reducing rate had increased by 6. Consequently, the exploitation on surface runoff water and groundwater dramatically changed the hydrological situation of the HRB in the long historical period. All the 33 tributaries in the middle reaches no longer joined into the mean stream after s, and they gradually disappeared and formed some independent irrigation oasis.

The water volume of the runoff through the Zhengyixia decreased sharply in recent decades, from 1. In arid region, large-scale development of irrigation agriculture induces dramatic increase of water demand. The excessive water consumption by humans has resulted in continued environmental deterioration, which has become a serious threat to sustainable development. Currently, the overall water consumption of all sectors in the HRB is about 3. Indeed, groundwater has become the dominant source of water supply for irrigation in Northern China. Taking the year as an example, the annual water consumption in the HRB is 2.

Specifically, the farmland irrigation consumption is 2. In terms of the spatial distribution of water consumption, it is mainly concentrated in the middle reaches, accounting for The water consumption in the lower reaches accounts for When water moves from mountains in the upper reaches to oases in the middle reaches and then disappears in the desert in the lower reaches, it courses significant differences in economic development, natural environmental bearing capacity, and ecological stability among the three reaches.

The fact that population and economy mainly concentrate in the middle reaches results in the high water consumption in Shandan, Minle, Linze, Gaotai, and other regions Table 1. Similarly, the irrigation farming in the middle reaches of the HRB has greatly contributed to the increase of food production historically and supported the large number of population of the northwestern China.

In the HRB, large-scale development of irrigation farming induces dramatic increase of water demand. For the ratio of daily life water usage, industrial water usage, and agricultural water, Russian is Therefore, there is a lot of works to do on agricultural water saving strategies in terms of water resource management.

This phenomenon is extremely predominating in the middle reaches of the HRB, where there are too many irrigation gates and plain reservoirs and where high technical irrigation engineering and exploitation of groundwater cannot be supported. All of these lead to low water efficiency and lower GDP output of per unit of water. Water resource of the HRB can not only generate economic benefits, but also provide the ecological service function.

Some scholars put forward the generalized water efficiency and point out that it not only represents the social and economic water consumption, but also represents natural ecological water consumption; it not only focuses on a single department or units water utilization process, but also pays attention to the water utilization of the whole region. A river basin is not only characterized by natural and physical processes but also related to man-made projects and management policies.

In this sense, the lower reaches are rich in natural resources, but the ecological sustainability is extremely vulnerable because of limited water. The oasis is the most concentrated area of human activities in arid regions and the disturbances are happening on a large scale in this area. Therefore, the desertification process of the lower reaches of HRB exacerbated the deterioration of the ecological environment, causing the area to become a source of dust storms and threat environmental safety in northern China. In the inland river basin, rising the water security and efficiency is of great significance, which can guarantee the water supply for livelihood and production.

The situation about the low water efficiency in the HRB is far from being satisfactory. The deficiency of systems and institutions on water management as well as the unreasonable water allocation scheme becomes the primary cause of the severe water consumption in agriculture. There are two main kinds of management strategies for community irrigation in the HRB: For the collective management strategy mode, village leaders are in charge of the village water allocation, channel maintenance, water charges, and other relevant issues to fulfill their water management duties.

In contrast, WUAs is independent water management organizations which take over the village leaders to be responsible for water allocation, channel maintenance, water charges, and other relevant issues in a specific village. In terms of the policies and measures on water demand management, there are three modes: For the water price mode, the government would charge some fees for water services.

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For the water tickets mode, the farmers need to purchase water tickets from village leaders or WUAs before the farmland irrigation activities. The water rights mode refers to the water right card issued to farmers to guarantee their water consumption rights. From the year onward, a series of water resource allocation and management policies have been implemented in China to alleviate the conflicts between natural water shortage and the high water consumption [ 24 ].

With the support of scientific research from Chinese scholars, it has allocated the water resource for five times among the HRB. Unfortunately, different counties have its own management focuses and time schedules and that leads to another form of water waste.

The difficulty for a rational water allocation scheme is also constricted by the fact that the supply volume and the annual distribution of water in the lower reaches are completely subjected to the human activities in the middle reaches. In the long history, people living in the middle reaches performed irrigation agriculture settled culture and the people living in lower reaches performed nomadic husbandry.

Even though conflict on water use between the middle reaches and lower reaches has a history of years, it reached to an unprecedented situation. Since s, intensive agricultural practices in the middle reaches have resulted in drastic environmental degradation in the lower reaches. In addition, Heihe River dries up in May, June, and July and is flooded in August to October, and the water volume would reduce and even stops flowing sharply in December till the next March or April. At that time the river will be recharged. Consequently, there is a prominent contradiction between the water supply and demand in the lower reaches timely and spatially, which deteriorated by that fact that the high water demanding just happens in the dry periods [ 22 ].

Meanwhile, the water quality and water pollution caused by severe human activities cannot be ignored. In the past decades, the water scarce conditions and water quality situation have been aggravated dramatically in the lower reaches because of the large increase in agricultural fertilizer and pesticide use in the middle reaches.

HydroOffice | Surface- and Groundwater Quality Changes in Periods of Water Scarcity

Considering the water scarcity character of the HRB, it is important to clarify the coupling relationship between water, ecology, and social economy, reveal the driving mechanism of the socioeconomic system on the evolution of water resource, improve the systems and institution designs for water management, and explore innovative approaches on optimal water allocation. There are significant differences in ecosystem structure among upper, middle, and lower reaches.

Industrial and agricultural water demand in the middle reaches and ecological water consumption in the lower reaches form the mechanism of interaction of water supply and demand with the water producing in the upper reaches. Therefore, researches on the HRB should firstly focus on simulation of hydrologic process of the basin with the help of complex systematic modeling technology [ 25 ]. These researches basically conceptualized the basic laws of ecohydrological process in the HRB and revealed mechanisms on water cycling and ecological system evolution as well as the coupling mechanism between them.

INTRODUCTION

The modeling work on the HRB is highlighted by model integration and meanly based on subregional modeling. There has been a lot of researches on hydrological process, groundwater, water resource, land use, land surface process, ecology, and social economy of the HRB based on a series of related models [ 12 ]. The model integration on the upper reaches of the HRB takes the distributed hydrological model as the core and realized the model coupling in a series of issues including the characteristics of runoff from mountainous subwatershed and the unity of atmosphere-vegetation-soil-permafrost-snow cover.

As for the model integration in the middle reaches in the HRB, these researches are focused on coupling troubles among the surface water, groundwater, and the ecological models. For example, there was a study coupling SiB2 land surface model with aquifer flow, which significantly enhanced the capability of simulating evapotranspiration and surface-groundwater interaction and achieved systematic simulation for hydrological cycle in the middle reaches of the HRB.

In addition, the model has certain capability of prediction and decision support. For instance, if the model is used to optimize irrigation system, it can save These studies have proved that the coupling model can be used to analyze ecological system and the interactions of the hydrological cycle and guide the water-saving practices on agriculture. Another important consideration in model integration is modeling environment. It is the visual computer software platform that supports the efficient development of integration model, convenient connection among existing models or modules, module management, data pretreatment, and parameter calibration.

The application of modeling environment in the integrated research of the HRB has mainly two directions. One is to use the existing international mature model to realize the coupling modeling environment to solve the key problems in integration issue. Considering the defects of existing modeling environment in the flexibility, another direction is to develop a new modeling environment.

In this aspect, some Chinese scholars established the new modeling environment to explore the hydrology and land surface process. By using highly efficient and flexible module and data transfer mechanism, this environment has realized the flexible extensibility and reusability of the module.

Based on this platform, some case studies of the modeling integration of the HRB have been implemented. Generally, studies in HRB meanly focused on the ecohydrological processes, water use mechanism of the typical plants, and their characteristics when responding to stress. At the upper reaches of the HRB, the integration research on ecohydrology process revealed the interaction mechanism between ecological system and hydrologic system, enhanced the cognition of mechanism on water resource formation and transformation, and laid the foundation for water resource evolution research under climate change.

At the middle and lower reaches, the ecohydrological integration research clarified the relationship between the transformations of different kinds of water resource, illustrated the interaction and coupling mechanism between the water cycle and vegetation structure, rebuilt the spatial-temporal distribution of water resource in the historic periods, and forecasted it in the future.

However, the basin is a complete system for cooperative development and evolution of the human society as well as ecology. Human activities have becoming the main driving force for hydrological circulation, and the social-economic water dimension rather than the natural hydrological dimension has become the driving water circulation, but researches on the former are very weak [ 28 ].

Model on either single process cannot comprehensively simulate the characterization of the process, behavior, and interaction mechanism of the whole system. At present, there have been two types of DSS: For the development of the research-oriented DSS, it has integrated multiple hydrologic models and coupled many GIS functions to support coupled work of multidisciplinary model. Also, it has made technical breakthroughs on the mismatch of the models at different spatial-temporal scales.

Through providing scenario-driven decision making strategies graphically and multiobjectively and providing various auxiliary decision tools, it is expected to be a new generation of DSS for river basin integrated management. It is also able to study the planting structure of different crops and spatial-temporal distribution of water requirement with different hydraulic engineering conditions.

Finally, it can realize the simulation of water resource allocation process at multilevel the whole basin, administrational district, and irrigation region and evaluate the influence of varied water resource management strategies. Taking the arid climate and the unique relationship among the three reaches of the HRB into consideration, there should be an innovative framework and research components for DSS for the HRB based on the existing studies Figure 4.

Spatially, water consumption of the HRB mainly concentrated in the middle reaches, where industrialization and urbanization are evident. Institutionally, there is a history of water right and water price system and institutions in the HRB, especially in the middle reaches where irrigation agriculture is preformed widely.

Naturally, the desertification process exacerbated the deterioration of the ecology and change of oasis area. Also, the future climate change will greatly influence the hydrological process and water supple, that is, the precipitation as well as the solid glacier in the upper reaches. Therefore, as a unit of the whole scientific framework of the DDS, we should firstly comprehensively consider and make multiple scenarios analysis on the impacts of water right system reform, industrialization and urbanization, land use change, change of oasis area, and climate change on the HRB.

This work can be conducted on the basis of exciting knowledge, data, and regional models. The scenarios analysis results would help to deepen and widen the recognition of the mechanism and linage of a series of factors within the ecology and economy of the arid area. Secondly, the water resource utilization in the HRB is often confronted with the contradiction between ecological service and social and economic development.

Therefore, it is necessary to realize the modeling integration between the social-economic model and ecohydrological model for the optimization of watershed management. The work on model integration needs to analyze the water supply capacity, water consumption structure, water efficiency, and water demand trend at multilevel whole basin, administrational district, and irrigation region. Specifically, it needs to clarify the interaction mechanism among the water supply in the upper reaches, the industrial water consumption in middle reaches, and ecological water consumption in the lower reaches.

Further, the water management system is indispensable for the whole framework of the DDS. In practice, due to the absence of proper water management system, the conflicts among counties often arise because of competition on water use and jurisdictional mandates of the related stakeholders. An integrated watershed water management system should comprehensively consider the ecology, hydrology, and socioeconomy in the basin, in order to provide scientific support for the water security, ecological security, and sustainable development of the inland river basin.

Last but not least, water optimal allocation strategies should be involved to explore the regulation measures under different natural and social scenarios. In recent years, a series of studies have been carried out on understanding the impact of human activities irrigation, livestock activities, and institutional change on water [ 29 ]. However, compared to the study on the ecohydrological process and modeling research on the HBR, the mechanism studies water resource allocation are relatively weak. In this sense, both the system and institution design for water management and the optimal water resource allocation would be extended as follows.

In recent years, the integrated management of the HRB has drawn great attention from Chinese government. A major task of this Bureau is to lead the project on uniform water management and water distribution throughout the HRB. Before that, water was used mainly for forest and grassland irrigation, groundwater recharge, and replenishment of the rivers in East Juyan Lake in lower reaches. Unfortunately, there has been no fundamental improvement for the water solutions. Globally, there is a longstanding and widespread recognition that the river basin is the natural unit for water management [ 30 , 31 ] Table 2.

For instance, the USA began to set up institutions to comprehensively manage river basins from s. Created in the year , the Tennessee Valley Authority TVA in is a river basin authority for the unified planning and full development of water resource on a river basin scale in order to achieve comprehensive regional socioeconomic development [ 30 , 31 ].

It was built based on systematically analysis of observation data from more than 10 thousand runoff regions in 30 states in Eastern America in 30 years. The last decades witnessed growth in research examining partnerships for integrated water resources management IWRM in different global regions. It is now employed globally in various physical, socioeconomic, cultural, and institutional settings. Compared to traditional approaches to water problems, IWRM takes a broader holistic view and examines a more complete range of solutions.