Author(s): Wang Xiao-Jun; Zhang Jian-Yun; Liu Jiu-Fu; Liu Cui-Shan
Linked Author(s):
Keywords: Water Demand Management; Water price; System Dynamics; Water resources; Water conservation; Yulin city
Abstract: China is a water-scarce country, although some of the strategic efforts have been done in the past years, water shortage is still one of a key factors to block the economic and social development. With the rapid growth of population, and the development of industry and agriculture in recent years, the conflict between water supply and demand is aggravated than ever before. Water price as a fundamental economic tool to influence water demand, is always an important instrument being used in Water Demand Management all over the world. In this paper, a model to analyze the water pricing regulation in water demand management was developed based on a complex System Dynamic (SD) model and theory of supply and demand, and was applied in Yulin city, Shaanxi province, in northwest part of China, as a case study with fruitful results. The model consists three components named water supply subsystem, water demand subsystem and water price subsystem. The developed system can consider the change and complexities of population growth, economic development, crop pattern, ecological water demand, water resources, water market into the management of water resources, by means of adjusting of the variables and parameters of the model, results show that water price is an important factor for equilibrium between water supply and demand.
Year: 2010