confronting the water crisis of beijing municipality in a...
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Confronting the Water Crisis of Beijing Municipality in a Systems Perspective
Focusing on Water Quantity and Quality Changes
J i n M a
Master of Science ThesisStockholm 2011
Jin Ma
Master of Science ThesisSTOCKHOLM 2011
Confronting the Water Crisis of Beijing Municipality in a Systems Perspective
Focusing on Water Quantity and Quality Changes
PRESENTED AT
INDUSTRIAL ECOLOGY ROYAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Supervisor:
Ronald Wennersten Examiner:
Ronald Wennersten
TRITA-IM 2011:15 ISSN 1402-7615 Industrial Ecology, Royal Institute of Technology www.ima.kth.se
i
SUMMARY
In recent decades, water systems worldwide are under crisis due to excessive human interventions
particularly in the arid and semi-arid regions. In many cities, the water quantity situation has
become more and more serious, caused either by absolute water shortage or water pollution.
Considering population growth and fast urbanization, ensuring adequate water supply with
acceptable water quality is crucial to socio-economic development in the coming decades. In this
context, one key point is to (re-)address various water problems in a more holistic way.
This study explores the emerging water crisis events in Beijing Municipality so as to have a better
understanding of water systems changes and to make more sustainable water-related decisions.
The changes of water quantity and water quality in the region are analyzed in a systems
perspective; and opportunities towards improved performance of Beijing‟s water systems are
discussed. In order to aid in water systems analysis, a conceptual framework is developed, with a
focus on identifying the most important interactions of the urban water sector.
The results of the study show that the emerging water crisis events in the Beijing region are
caused by a variety of inter-related factors, both external and internal. The external factor is
mainly the decreasing upstream surface water inflow into the Guanting and Miyun reservoirs.
The internal factors include precipitation variation, excessive water withdrawals, increasing water
demands for different purposes and a large amount of pollutants discharged to the receiving
water bodies. These factors together have caused tremendous water systems changes in Beijing
Municipality from both the water quantity and water quality perspectives.
In order to alleviate the serious water situation in Beijing Municipality, many further efforts are
required in the dynamic socioeconomic and ecological context. Although tremendous work has
been carried out by water-related institutions to prevent flood and ensure water supply, water
resources development, planning and management must be addressed employing systems
thinking and in a more holistic way. This is crucial for balancing the tradeoffs of water quantity
and water quality in the Beijing region. Besides the experimental inter-basin water transfer
activities, water demand management and pollution reduction and prevention should be the top
priority on the agenda of the Beijing government in the long term. Moreover, only at a river
basin level may various upstream-downstream conflicts be alleviated by wiser water allocation
among administrative regions, as well as taking the ecological water demand into consideration.
Finally, considering the current water situation and water management system, the following
three aspects of improvement are emphasized in the present study, including a promoted water-
centric value, institutional capacity building and employing economic principles for water
resources management.
Key words: Beijing, sustainability, systems thinking, urban water, water quality, water quantity
ii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
This thesis work is carried out at the Department of Industrial Ecology (DoIE), Royal Institute
of Technology (KTH), Stockholm. I really appreciate the experiences of studying in the
international master program of „Sustainable Technology‟. I have benefited so much from
various courses related to Industrial Ecology and Sustainable Development. Absolutely many
people have contributed either directly or indirectly to the thesis work.
First of all, I would like to thank my supervisor Ronald Wennersten, professor at the DoIE, for
his constructive guidance, encouragement and valuable comments on the thesis. Thanks too to
Xingqiang Song, PhD student at the DoIE, for his assistance in data collection and helpful
comments on the earlier drafts of the thesis.
Further thanks to the teachers of all courses I took at KTH. Moreover, thanks to Karin Orve,
the Education Administrator at the DoIE, and Monika Olsson, the Director of Studies at the
DoIE, for their kindness and various help during my study period at KTH.
I am also grateful to Ms. Yingfang He at the International Office of KTH for her help during my
living in Stockholm, especially for her encourage when I still hesitated to apply for this master
program a few years ago. In addition, I would like to thank all my Chinese friends for their help.
Last but not least, I would like to add personal thanks to my family for years of support and
understanding during the period of my study and living in Sweden.
iii
TABLE OF CONTENTS
SUMMARY ........................................................................................................................... i
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ................................................................................................... ii
ABBREVIATIONS ............................................................................................................... v
LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................. vi
LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ viii
1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... 1
1.1 Background .................................................................................................................................... 1
1.2 Water Stress in the Beijing Region .............................................................................................. 2
1.3 Aim and Objectives ...................................................................................................................... 5
2 METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................................... 6
2.1 Systems Thinking .......................................................................................................................... 6
2.2 A Conceptual Framework for Urban Water Systems Analysis .............................................. 6
2.3 Data Collection ............................................................................................................................. 7
3 WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT ...................................................................... 9
3.1 Sustainability and Water Resources ............................................................................................ 9
3.2 Integrated Water Resources Management ............................................................................... 11
3.4 Urban Water Management ......................................................................................................... 12
4 MATERIALS................................................................................................................... 16
4.1 Beijing Municipality and its Water Systems ............................................................................. 16
4.2 Characteristics of Water Systems Development .................................................................... 18
4.3 The Social and Economic Context .......................................................................................... 20
5 RESULTS ........................................................................................................................ 23
5.1 Water Quantity Changes ............................................................................................................ 23
5.1.1 Precipitation variation .................................................................................................... 23
5.1.2 Surface water inflow (SWI) ........................................................................................... 24
5.1.3 Surface water outflow (SWO) ....................................................................................... 26
5.2 Water Uses and Regional Water Deficits ................................................................................. 29
5.2.1 Water supply and water uses ......................................................................................... 29
5.2.2 Water deficits and decreasing groundwater table ....................................................... 31
5.3 Water Quality Changes ............................................................................................................... 33
5.3.1 Point and non-point pollution ...................................................................................... 33
5.3.2 Surface water quality....................................................................................................... 37
5.3.3 Groundwater quality....................................................................................................... 39
6 DISCUSSION ................................................................................................................. 41
6.1 Water Quantity Changes ............................................................................................................ 41
6.2 Water Quality Changes ............................................................................................................... 43
iv
6.3 Suggestions for Alleviating Water Stress in Beijing Municipality ........................................ 44
7 CONCLUSIONS ............................................................................................................ 47
REFERENCES .................................................................................................................. 49
v
ABBREVIATIONS
BSIN Beijing Statistical Information Net
BMCUP Beijing Municipal Commission of Urban Planning
BMEPB Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau
BRB Beiyun River Basin in the Beijing Region
BWA Beijing Water Authority
COD Chemical Oxygen Demand
CRB Chaobai River Basin in the Beijing Region
DRB Daqing River Basin in the Beijing Region
GDP Gross Domestic Product
GWP Global Water Partnership
HRB Hai River Basin
IWRM Integrated Water Resources Management
IWT Inter-basin Water Transfer
JRB Jiyun River Basin in the Beijing Region
JWSC Jingmi Water Supply Canal
MEP Ministry of Environmental Protection of China
MDGs Millennium Development Goals
NBS National Bureau of Statistics of China
RFWR Renewable Fresh Water Resources
SD Sustainable Development
SWI Surface Water Inflow
SWO Surface Water Outflow
UN United Nations
UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organizations
UWM Urban Water Management
WCOED World Commission on Environment and Development
WRM Water Resources Management
YRB Yongding River Basin in the Beijing Region
YWSC Yongding Water Supply Canal
vi
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1.1 Some influencing factors in the emerging water stress events 1
Figure 1.2 Location of Beijing Municipality and its water systems 3
Figure 1.3 Amount of water storage in the Guanting and Miyun Reservoir, 1999-2009 4
Figure 2.1 A conceptual framework showing the identified sub-systems in the study 7
Figure 3.1 We all live downstream at a watershed 10
Figure 3.2 The general components of IWRM 11
Figure 3.3 Ways in which human use affects the water cycle and freshwater ecosystems 12
Figure 3.4 The hydrological cycle in society 13
Figure 3.5 Stages of water use and pollution abatement 14
Figure 4.1 Average monthly precipitation in the Beijing region, 1956-2000 16
Figure 4.2 The five main river basins in Beijing Municipality 17
Figure 4.3 Population growth and urbanization in Beijing Municipality, 1949-2008 20
Figure 4.4 Growth of GDP and GDP per capita in Beijing Municipality, 1949-2008 21
Figure 4.5 Strategic structure of Beijing‟s urban spatial development described in the “Overall Urban Planning (2004-2020)”
21
Figure 5.1 Yearly precipitation at the Beijing Rainfall Station (1724-1949) and in the Beijing region (1950-2009)
23
Figure 5.2 Spatial distribution of annual average precipitation in the fiver river basins and the Beijing region, 1956-2000
24
Figure 5.3 Surface water inflow of the Beijing region, 1961-2009 25
Figure 5.4 Changes of the surface water inflow of the YRB and the average annual precipitation in the upstream area of the Guanting reservoir in the YRB, 1956-2000
26
Figure 5.5 Surface water outflow of the Beijing region, 1961-2009 27
Figure 5.6 Precipitation and the composition of surface water outflows of the BRB (1961-2000) and the Beijing region (2001-2009)
28
vii
Figure 5.7 Water used in different sectors in Beijing Municipality, 1988-2009 29
Figure 5.8 Yearly amount of tap water supply and well water supply, 1949-2008 31
Figure 5.9 Comparison of the annual amount of renewable freshwater resources, surface water inflow, and water withdrawals in the Beijing region, 2000-2009
32
Figure 5.10 Decreasing groundwater table of the plain area in the Beijing region, 1960-2009
33
Figure 5.11 Amount of yearly wastewater discharge in the Beijing region, 1996-2009 34
Figure 5.12 Daily wastewater discharge and yearly wastewater treatment rate in the Beijing region, 1954-2008
35
Figure 5.13 Amount of COD discharge from different sectors in the Beijing region, 1998-2009
35
Figure 5.14 Numbers of sewage outfall and amount of wastewater discharged in 2003 36
Figure 5.15 Amount of pollutants discharge in the five river basins in 2003 36
Figure 5.16 Amount of yearly fertilizer use in the Beijing region, 1949-2008 37
Figure 5.17 River water quality of the Beijing region, 2001-2009 38
Figure 5.18 Surface water quality of the Beijing region in 2008 38
Figure 5.19 Groundwater quality of the Beijing region in 2004 39
Figure 5.20 Fraction of the shallow groundwater quality in the Beijing region, 2003-2009
40
Figure 6.1 Changes of arable land area and irrigation area in the Beijing region, 1949-2008
43
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LIST OF TABLES
Table 3.1 The functions of urban water management 13
Table 4.1 Area of the five river basins 17
Table 4.2 Five main hydropower projects in the Beijing region 18
Table 5.1 Amount of water supplied from different sources and used in different
sectors in the Beijing region, 1980-2009
30
1
1 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background
Water is essential to the existence of the earth and human. It is the bloodstream of both
human society and ecosystems. Human has a very close relationship with rivers from the
beginning of human civilization. The history of human society and rivers development is
intermingled in many ways. In turn, rivers nourish various materials provided to human
society or threaten to destroy it e.g. by flood or drought. Correspondingly, local
inhabitants keep thinking about how to manage rivers since the ancient time, employing
either controlling or adapting methods.
In recent decades, however, water systems are gradually degraded by intensive human
activities. More and more water-related crisis events happen in many regions, which to
some extent block the progress towards sustainable development in general and
particularly towards achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals by 2015. Among
them, water scarcity is the most obvious one worldwide, which is caused either by
absolute shortage of renewable freshwater resources or relative shortage of usable
freshwater resources due to serious pollution. In brief, water stress is caused by a variety
of factors, e.g. population growth, socio-economic development, climate change,
unsustainable water use pattern, and the sectoral water management. On the other hand,
the aggravating water stress has brought up diverse challenges, e.g. difficulties of water
supply with acceptable quality and emerging water allocation conflicts at all levels. A
brief schematic cause-and-effect of water stress is shown in Figure 1.1.
Figure 1.1 Some influencing factors in the emerging water stress events
Precipitation versus
evapotranspiration
WATER
STRESS
Threats of sufficient water
supply with acceptable quality
Emerging water allocation
conflicts to meet all different
water demands in river basins
Population
increase
Economic growth
Climate variation &
Land use changes
Water-use pattern
Water pollution
Water-related
institutions
2
Nowadays various water crisis events need to be addressed from different perspectives
particularly in the urban areas. With continuous population growth (from 6.1 billion in
2000 to 8.9 billion in 2050) and rapid urbanization (UN 2004), the capacity of water
supply and wastewater treatment would be greatly challenged in many countries. In China,
for example, the urbanization rate (urban population) would increase from 35.8% (0.45
billion) in 2000 to 60.3% (0.88 billion) in 2030 and to 72.9% (1.02 billion) in 2050 (UN
2007). In this context, urban water environment may undergo huge stress in many
regions in the coming decades. It is widely accepted that one of the major challenges of
the 21st century is to provide safe drinking water and basic sanitation for all
(Vairavamoorthy 2008). In this regard, it is even more challengeable for urban water
manager in such a megacity as Beijing Municipality. Moreover, climate variation may
worsen the fragile urban water systems in many regions.
From the sustainability point of view, one of the characteristics of urban water systems
is their complexity. Urban water is regarded as the lifeline of cities and the focus of the
movement towards more sustainable and emerging „green‟ cities (Novotny & Brown
2007). Urban water systems are more or less linked with several other urban systems, e.g.
energy, transportation and waste. Although a vast amount of money has spent on costly
„hard‟ solutions like sewers and treatment plants, however, water supplies and water
quality still remain a major concern in many urbanized areas (Novotny 2009). In this
context, a more holistic analysis is crucial to having a better understanding of urban
water systems changes and to moving towards improved water resources management
employing systems thinking in a multidisciplinary context.
1.2 Water Stress in the Beijing Region
Beijing Municipality (see Figure 1.2) is located in the semi-arid North China Plain (Hua
Bei Ping Yuan) between east longitude 115°25‟ - 117°30‟ and north latitude 39°26‟ - 41°05‟.
Its total land area is around 16,800 km2, among which 10,400 km2 (62%) forms the
mountain area and 6,400 km2 (38%) is of the plain area. The mountain area is situated at
an elevation of 1,400-1,600 m; and the elevation of the plain area ranges between 30 m
and 100 m. The highest mountain, Ling Mountain, locates in Western Beijing at an
elevation of 2,303 m above the sea level.
Along with the rapid socio-economic development, Beijing Municipality has been under
severe water stress in recent decades from the viewpoint of water quantity. From 1956 to
2000, the average annual available freshwater resources is around 3.8 billion m3 and the
average water resources per capita is less than 300 m3. In 2008, the amount of annual
available freshwater per capita was only 220 m3, which accounts for roughly 1/10 of
China‟s average and 1/37 of the global average.
Since the foundation of the P.R. China in 1949, there are four main quantitative water
crisis events in the Beijing region (Zhang 2009). The first event happened in the 1960s.
In 1960, there was only 61 mm precipitation from January to June, which was only half
3
of the average annual precipitation during the same period. In 1965, the annual
precipitation was 377 mm and the urban water supply was under stress. During the
period, the Guanting reservoir was almost dried up due to dry weather and the
decreasing surface water inflow.
Figure 1.2 Location of Beijing Municipality and its water systems (Probe International Beijing
Group 2008)
During the second water crisis event (1970-1972), the average annual precipitation
decreased to 508 mm. The amount of water storage in the Guanting and Miyun
reservoirs decreased so fast that supplied water only to the urban areas in the Beijing and
Tianjin regions. In order to meet the agricultural water demand, around 30,000 wells
were excavated in the plain area. Meanwhile, the Yongding River started running dry
periodically in its downstream river courses.
The third event (1980-1986) was characterized as seven continuous drought years.
During this period, the average annual precipitation was further decreased to 498 mm
that was close to its lowest historical annual precipitation of 492 mm (1857-1870). By the
4
end of July in 1981, the total water storage in the Guanting and Miyun reservoirs was
only 0.5 billion m3. In 1981, the state council decided that the Miyun reservoir would
only supply water to the Beijing city since then. Meanwhile, some water conservation
measures were put forward, e.g. by setting water use cap in the different water sectors.
The last water crisis event was from 1999 to 2007, with an average annual precipitation
of 428 mm. The amount of water storage in the two main reservoirs also had a
decreasing trend (see Figure 1.3). By the end of 2003, the amount of water stored in the
Guanting and Miyun Reservoir was 211 million m3 and 723 million m3, which had
reduced by around 320 million m3 and 2,120 million m3, respectively, compared to those
in 1999. On the other hand, the Yongding River courses below Sanjiadian frequently ran
dry since the 1990s. In 2001, for the first time, the Yongding River had been running dry
for 58 days in total during the rainy season from May to August. Similarly, between July
and August in 2003, the Guanting reservoir had no surface water inflow for 20 days in
total. Those facts show that the upstream-downstream water conflicts are more and
more serious in both river basins and municipalities.
Figure 1.3 Amount of water storage in the Guanting and Miyun Reservoir, 1999-2009 (based on
data from BWA 2000-2010)
Besides various water quantity crisis events, Beijing Municipality has been experiencing
the water quality crisis since the 1970s. In 2009, accounting for 45% of the monitored
2,323.7 km river courses was classified as Grade V Worst (GB3838-2002), which means
that this water was essentially useless (BWA 2010). For the shallow aquifer, around 3,030
km2 – 48% of the plain area was classified as Grade IV & Grade V in 2009, which means
that this water was only suitable for industrial and agricultural uses, respectively (BWA
2010). The serious water quality situation was caused mainly by a higher value of
hardness, ammonia-nitrogen and nitrate-nitrogen. In contrast, the quality of deep
groundwater was better. Only 563 km2 deep ground water – accounting for 16% of the
monitored area – was classified as Grade IV & Grade V in 2009 (BWA 2010). At that
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
wat
er s
tora
ge,
mil
lio
n m
3
Guanting Miyun
5
time, the main pollutants were ammonia-nitrogen and fluoride. In the near future,
therefore, tremendous efforts are required to be put on pollution prevention in order to
protect both the surface water and groundwater sources in the region.
1.3 Aim and Objectives
The overall aim of the thesis is to analyze the changes of water quantity and water
quality in the Beijing region in a systems perspective. Having a better understanding of
water systems changes is crucial towards improved water resources management in such
a mega-city as Beijing under water crisis. Specific objectives of the thesis work are to
explore the challenges of the current water systems in the Beijing region and to discuss
opportunities towards improved performance of Beijing‟s water systems from the
sustainability point of view, taking the specific ecological and socio-economic context
into consideration. Specifically,
Exploring the challenging water situation in the Beijing region.
Developing a conceptual framework for aiding in urban water systems analysis,
with a focus on identifying the interactions between human and rivers.
Identifying, analyzing and discussing the significant contributing factors of the
emerging water crisis events.
Drawing up suggestions to improve the future water management practices in the
region.
6
2 METHODOLOGY
2.1 Systems Thinking
Systems science aims to study the interaction between man and his environment from
multiple perspectives, holistically (Skyttner 2005). Due to the increasing complexity of
the modern society, water systems need to be addressed from a more holistic point of
view. Only in this way could the contributing factors of water crisis be better understood
and may more sustainable solutions be developed. The formerly partial analysis of water
supply and wastewater treatment is no longer suitable from the viewpoint of
sustainability. In this context, the systems approach is inherent in a comprehensive
historical, contemporary and futuristic outlook (Skyttner 2005). Therefore, addressing
the emerging water crisis events in the mega city of Beijing, to a large extent, requires
thinking in systems.
Aiming to achieve satisfied results of a systems analysis, first, we need to better
understand the basic context of systems theory. An identified system is not a collection
of different parts in isolation; in fact, a system is more than the sum of its parts.
Specifically, a system is a set of elements so interconnected as to aid in driving toward a
defined goal (Gibson et al. 2007). In Brief, there are four questions to ask whether we are
looking at a system or just a bunch of stuff (Meadows 2008):
(1) Can the parts be identified? and
(2) Do the parts affect each other? and
(3) Do the parts together produce an effect that is different from the effect of each
other on its own? and perhaps
(4) Does the effect, the behavior over time, persist in a variety of circumstances?
These four questions actually bring forwards some tips of developing a system. In brief,
the most basic aspects of a system include: (i) system boundaries, (ii) subsystems, and (iii)
interactions among the hierarchical/nested subsystems.
2.2 A Conceptual Framework for Urban Water
Systems Analysis
In order to have a better understanding of water systems development in the Beijing
region, systems thinking and analysis is employed in the present study. Systems thinking
could aid in identifying the contributing factors of the emerging water stress in recent
decades, from both water quantity and water quality perspectives. Based on the Industrial
Ecology-based approach developed at the DoIE (Song et al. 2011a), a conceptual
framework (see Figure 2.1) is developed to aid in analyzing water systems changes
including both the natural river systems and human society. In the present study, the
system boundary is the whole Beijing Municipality (the whole Beijing region). Four
subsystems are identified: (i) a freshwater resources (surface and underground water
7
bodies) subsystem, (ii) a water withdrawals and supply system subsystem, (iii) a water
allocation and uses subsystem, and (iv) a wastewater collection and disposal subsystem.
The four subsystems are inter-related by water flows and/or pollutants flows. There are
three inputs of the system: upstream surface water inflow (SWI), local precipitation,
inter-basin water transfer inflow (IWT). The outflow of the system is surface water
outflow (SWO) in rivers. Because of data availability, other important factors of a water
system are not included in the present study, e.g. groundwater movement,
evapotranspiration and storm water.
Figure 2.1 A conceptual framework showing the identified sub-systems in the study, with an
emphasis of the most important interactions of urban water systems (where P is precipitation,
SWI is surface water inflow, IWT is inter-basin water transfer inflow, and SWO is surface water
outflow) (based on Song et al. 2011a)
2.3 Data Collection
This study attempts to provide a more holistic picture of water systems development in
the Beijing region, with a focus on water quantity and water quality changes in recent
decades. A variety of information had been collected from various sources and been
synthesized. Data were collected mainly from the water-related governmental statistics
and reports, e.g. the yearly „Beijing Environmental Statement‟ by Beijing Municipal
Environmental Protection Bureau (BMEPB), the yearly „Beijing Water Resources Bulletin‟
by Beijing Water Authority (BWA), and the report „Investigation and Assessment of
Surface Water Quantity in Beijing Municipality‟ by BWA and Beijing Institute of Water.
Moreover, some relevant local policy documents were studied and some literature
sources were reviewed regarding sustainable water resources management in river basins
8
and cities.
An interesting thing observed in the data collection process is that the same category of
data from different sources sometimes is a bit different. Until now, it is very hard to find
out the true reasons for explaining those differences. In the present study, however, we
mainly adopt the published data from the relevant governmental agencies with their
references in texts.
9
3 WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT
3.1 Sustainability and Water Resources
Sustainability, along with its various definitions, now seems to have different meanings
for people working in different discipline. But it always focuses on the long-term
improvement of human‟s well-being. The definition of “Sustainability” in the Brundtland
Commission‟s report Our Common Future (World Commission On Environment and
Development 1987) is: “Human has the ability to make development sustainable – to ensure that it
meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own
needs.” Sustainability to some extent may be regarded as a philosophical concept without
a precise state of being. However, the universally accepted vision of moving towards
sustainability, first of all, could be facilitated by developing integrated resources
management approaches for natural resources including the limited freshwater resources
on earth.
Sustainability, to a large extent, is related to water issues and the capability of human
society coping with the diverse water crisis events. The common water-related challenges
globally can be classified into four groups, i.e. too little water (drought), too much water
(flood), too seriously polluted (water pollution), and degradation of aquatic and riparian
ecosystems. They are caused by both unevenly natural distribution and the behavior of
water consumer. Therefore, freshwater scarcity may have severely limiting impacts on
moving towards sustainable development and improving human well-being.
From the sustainability point of view, human society needs to address and solve various
water-related challenges in order to meet various socio-economic and ecological
demands. Hence, water resources management becomes of central importance in the
context of sustainable development. To alleviate the emerging water stress, attentions
have been paid to an integrated approach to sustainable water resource management
through effective water governance (UNESCO 2003). Moreover, the water-related
conflicts of upstream-downstream and human-nature need to be addressed with a higher
priority, since we to some extent all live downstream at a watershed level (see Figure 3.1).
Ensuring a safe water supply with accepted water quality is crucial to achieving
sustainable ecological, economic and social development (Cosgrove & Rijsberman 2000).
Water resources play a crucial role in achieving the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs). In the MDGs, there are two water-related goals, i.e. to halve the number of
human beings who have no access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation
facilities respectively, by 2015. In 2002, there were 1.1 billion people (18% of the world‟s
population) who have no access to safe drinking water, and 2.6 billion people (42% of
the total) lack access to basic sanitation (WHO & UNICEF 2005). At the global scale,
there seems to be tremendous challenges to achieve the two goals by 2015. One main
point is how to manage the available freshwater resources more sustainable, involving all
levels of stakeholders in the specific socio-economic and ecological context of different
10
countries.
Figure 3.1 We all live downstream at a watershed level (GWP 2000a)
The definition of sustainable water resources systems is put forward based on the
concept of sustainable development. In terms of the definition developed by Loucks &
Gladwell (1999), Sustainable water resource systems are „those designed and managed to fully
contribute to the objectives of society, now and in the future, while maintaining their ecological,
environmental, and hydrological integrity‟.
In general, the purpose of water resources management is to wisely allocate water
resources for socio-economic and ecological development. Therefore, the scope of
water management are diverse, e.g. relevant to water supply, wastewater treatment,
storm water management and flood prevention, hydropower, transportation, recreation,
and water for the aquatic ecosystems. Within the context of sustainable water
management, temporal and spatial dimensions are two key points. The aim of
sustainable water management is to provide sufficient water with the right quality at the
right place and at the right time. In practice, water management is strongly related to
three aspects: preventing flood, ensuring the balance between water supply and water
demand, protecting water ecological environment. The ultimate goal is water resources
management for socio-economic development, while keeping ecosystem healthy.
Similarly to the definition of sustainable development, the criteria for sustainable water
systems are usually divided into economic sustainability criteria, ecological and
environmental sustainability criteria, and institutional and social aspects of sustainability.
Until now, there are no specific criteria for sustainable water systems, depending on the
specific socio-economic and ecological conditions in different countries. For the
qualitative criteria, they to some extent are more often to be discussed, with a focus on
identifying suitable systems boundary and subsystems for water management, e.g. river
basin boundary vs. municipal boundary, water vs. land, and water vs. energy.
11
3.2 Integrated Water Resources Management
Global Water Partnership (GWP) defined IWRM as “IWRM is a process which promotes the
coordinated development and management of water, land and related resources in order to maximize the
resultant economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of
vital ecosystems” (GWP 2000b). The general components of IWRM are listed in Figure 3.2.
The concept of IWRM is developed based on the understanding that water systems are
an integral component of ecosystems at the scale of a river basin. To move towards
IWRM, comprehensive issues together need to be addressed in river basins, including
hydrological variation, institutional arrangements, land use, water infrastructure projects,
and water use in human society.
Figure 3.2 The general components of IWRM (Mayfield 2003)
The components of IWRM to some extent implicate the complexity of water resources
management, which includes several key water sectors and causes a variety of negative
impacts on nature. In order to meet various socio-economic demands of water resources,
various human activities have intensively disturbed the freshwater ecosystems in recent
decades (see Figure 3.3). Until now, most of river water systems and human society are
inter-related in several aspects, e.g. water quantity, water quality, and the function and
structure of ecosystems.
12
Figure 3.3 Ways in which human use affects the water cycle and freshwater ecosystems
(Carpenter & Biggs 2009)
The IWRM approach could improve the performance of water systems at a theoretical
level; however, there are still some serious bottlenecks on the implementation of IWRM.
One of them is simply uncertainty about how to get started on a process of creating an
IWRM and water efficiency strategy in specific national decision-making (Lenton 2004).
Furthermore, Lundqvist (2004) points out that a major challenge for IWRM refers to
those conventionally outside the water sector, and an integrated thinking is still absent to
follow water through the landscape and society. In this context, exploring various urban
water flows is also crucial to having a better understanding of water systems changes in
river basins and to ensuring water supply and protecting river ecosystems.
3.4 Urban Water Management
Urban water systems are related to a variety of issues in urban areas, e.g. water supply,
sanitation, wastewater collection and treatment, and storm water disposal. They are
essential to the socio-economic development of cities as well as to having healthy aquatic
and terrestrial ecosystems. Figure 3.4 shows the hydrological cycle in human society,
which can be seen as a basis for urban water systems analysis. Since urban water systems
have so many direct and indirect linkages with human society and nature, sustainable
visions for urban water systems development are required in order to have a healthy
water cycle at a river basin level in the long term.
13
Figure 3.4 The hydrological cycle in society (Lundin et al. 2000)
One of the main aspects of managing urban water systems may be to find the best way to
maintain water services and to ensure various water demands. Table 3.1 lists some of the
functions of urban water management. But these functions are mainly human-oriented,
though recycling nutrients between human and nature is emphasized (Larsen & Gujer
1997). From a sustainability point of view, however, urban water management is a part of
river basin management, and water allocation between human society and natural
ecosystems needs to be balanced.
Table 3.1 The functions of urban water management (Larsen & Gujer 1997)
1 Urban hygiene
Traditionally, urban hygiene meant solving the problems of removing faecal matter from urban areas, thereby minimizing the transfer of infectious agents. It should be extended to include the supply of water for production and cleaning purposes within households, trade and industry, including the handling of wastewater.
2 Drinking water and personal hygiene
Water for drinking, for cooking and for personal hygiene is subject to strict quality requirements. Urban water management must supply such quality water and protect the appropriate resources.
3 Prevention of flooding in draining of urban areas
Urban drainage is fundamental in many urban areas for preventing flooding. Although urban drainage has serious consequences for the water cycle and for the quality of receiving waters during storm events, it is not possible to maintain present population densities in urban areas without this service.
4 Integration of urban agriculture into urban water management
Traditionally, urban water management was assigned responsibility for recycling the nutrients between city and countryside. With the introduction of inexpensive fertilizers, this responsibility was lost. Urban agriculture has a good potential for simultaneously increasing life quality and the possibility of nutrient recycling in urban areas. Urban water management is regaining importance in this area.
5 Providing water for pleasure and for recreational aspects of urban culture Water has always been an important aspect of urban culture. Without fountains, ponds, public parks, etc. urban life would lose important qualities.
14
One of the greatest challenges posed by the fast urbanization rate and rapid population
growth is to guarantee safe, adequate and reliable water supply, as well as adequate
sanitation conditions (Porto 2000). Considering water use and pollution abatement
approaches, four stages (see Figure 3.5) have been identified showing the important
stages in water and environmental management (Lundqvist et al. 2001). The first two
stages adopt the conventional approaches, which assign nature and the public sector to
take care of the discharged wastewater and various pollutants. During the two stages, the
focus is on developing end-of-pipe solutions and alleviating negative impacts of
pollutants discharge on the nature environment, regardless of the amount of water uses
and what kinds of pollutants having been introduced into the water systems.
Figure 3.5 Stages of water use and pollution abatement (Lundqvist et al. 2001)
In contrast, the third and fourth stages aim to facilitate adopting the approaches of
„reduction at source‟ and „reduction before source‟, respectively. These two approaches
are more challengeable to be put into practice, because they need higher requirements on
economic development, corporate social responsibility, institutional capacity, production
and consumption styles, etc. But effectively employing the two approaches could result
in reducing a large amount of water used in different sectors and in alleviating the
negative impacts on water environment in cities and their nearby river basins.
15
To facilitate the transitions to the last two approaches in society, first of all, various water
systems changes need to be better understood in a more holistic way. Here, it is also
crucial to developing more sustainable water-related strategies in the specific national
socio-economic and ecological context. In this context, a systems perspective is helpful
to identify the most significant influencing factors of the emerging water crisis events and
to analyzing alternative solutions from the viewpoint of sustainability.
16
4 MATERIALS
4.1 Beijing Municipality and its Water Systems
Beijing Municipality is located in the semi-arid and semi-humid monsoon climate zone.
Between 1949 and 2008, the average annual temperature is 12.2 °C, with a maximum
value of 41.9 °C (in 1999) and a minimum value of -22.8 °C (in 1951) (BMBS 2010).
The average annual precipitation is 585 mm during the period 1956-2000, with an uneven
monthly distribution (see Figure 4.1). Around 80% of precipitation occurs in the rainy
season from June to September. The highest average monthly precipitation is 196.7 mm
in July, while the lowest monthly precipitation is only 1.9 mm in December. Moreover,
the annual average evaporation of the water surface is around 1,120 mm, and around
450-550 mm from the land surface. These characteristics together have posed huge
challenges e.g. on flood and drought prevention in the region.
Figure 4.1 Average monthly precipitation in the Beijing region, 1956-2000 (based on data from
Dou & Zhao 2006)
In history, there were abundant renewable freshwater resources in the Beijing region,
with healthy river ecosystems. In Beijing Municipality, there were around 100 running
rivers with a total length of 2,700 km. Most of the rivers origin in the west and north
mountain areas, flow from Northwest to Southeast, and finally enter into the Bohai Sea.
There are five main rivers (river basins) in the Beijing region (see Figure 4.2), i.e. Daqing
River (of the Daqing River Basin (DRB)), Yongding River (of the Yongding River Basin
(YRB)), Beiyun River (of the Beiyun River Basin (BRB)), Chaobai River (of the Chaobai
River Basin (CRB)), and Xun River (of the Jiyun River Basin (JRB)). All of the rivers
(river basins) are in the Hai River Basin (HRB). Among them, the CRB has the largest
area, while the JRB is the smallest one (see Table 4.1). Moreover, the five main rivers
originate in different regions: the JRB, CRB and DRB from Hebei province, the YRB
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from Shanxi province and Inner Mongolia, and only the BRB is a local river in the
Beijing Region.
Figure 4.2 The five main river basins in Beijing Municipality
Table 4.1 Area of the five river basins
River River Basin Area (km2)
Mountain Plain Total
Juma river DRB 1,615 604 2,219
Yongding river YRB 2,491 677 3,168
Beiyun river BRB 1,000 3,423 4,423
Chaobai river CRB 4,605 1,083 5,688
Xun river JRB 689 688 1,377
Beijing Municipality 10,400 6,400 16,800
Due to the uneven precipitation spatially and temporally, a variety of water infrastructure
projects have been constructed since 1949. By 2004, there were 85 reservoirs in total,
including 4 large-scale reservoirs1, 17 middle-scale reservoirs and 64 small-scale reservoirs,
with a total planned storage capacity of around 9.4 billion m3 (BWA 2005). The four
large-scale reservoirs are: Guanting, Miyun, Huairou and Haizi, with a total planned
1 In China, the large-scale reservoir refers to those with a planned storage capacity larger than
100 million m3; the middle-scale reservoir includes those with a planned storage capacity of 10-
100 million m3; and the small-scale reservoir is of a planned storage capacity of 0.1-10 million m3.
18
storage capacity of 8.8 billion m3. Among them, the Guanting and Miyun Reservoir are
of the two largest ones, with a total planned storage capacity of 8.54 billion m3 (91% of
the total reservoir storage capacity in the region). Moreover, by 2000, there were 51,699
constructed water wells in total, of which 51,454 wells were electromechanically operated.
Moreover, 47,335 wells locate in the plain area, and 4,364 wells are in the mountain area.
Those water projects have contributed to flood prevention, water supply and hydro-
electricity production. There are five main hydropower projects in the Beijing region (see
Table 4.2). In 2008, the total hydro-electricity production was 489.95 million kWh.
Table 4.2 Five main hydropower projects in the Beijing region
Name Location
Total
storage
capacity
(million m3)
Installed
capacity
(MW)
Operational
year
Electricity
production
in 2008
(million kWh)
Guanting Yongding
RB 4,160 350 1955 0.9
Miyun Chaobai
RB 4,375 88 1960 3.67
Xiama Ling Yongding
RB 14.3 65 1961 6.6
Xiawei Dian Yongding
RB 3.77 30 1975 2.78
Shisan Ling Beiyun RB 73 800 1995 476
The Guanting and Miyun Reservoir are the two main surface water suppliers to the
Beijing city. The Guanting Reservoir was completed in 1954, with a planned storage
capacity of 2.27 billion m3 (updated to 4.16 billion m3 in 1989). It was China‟s first large
reservoir since 1949. The Miyun Reservoir, located in the Chaobai River Basin (CRB)
was constructed in 1960, with a planned water storage capacity of 4.375 billion m3.
Besides the two reservoirs, there are two main water transfer canals that are responsible
for supplying water from the Guanting and Miyun Reservoir to the Beijing city. Firstly,
the Yongding Water Supply Canal (YWSC), constructed in 1956 with a length of 25.4 km,
is responsible for transferring water from the Guanting Reservoir to the central city.
Secondly, the Jingmi Water Supply Canal (JWSC), in operation since 1966 with a length
of 105.2 km, is responsible for transferring water from the Miyun Reservoir to the
Beijing city.
4.2 Characteristics of Water Systems Development
Since the foundation of the P. R. China, many efforts have been put on water systems
development in the capital Beijing region. Along with socioeconomic-ecological
development and climate variations, the emphases of water systems planning and
19
management vary since 1950. Until now, six water systems development periods can be
summarized as follows (Ouyang et al. 2009):
(1) Flood prevention and reservoir construction (1950-1959)
It was characterized by the construction of the Guanting and Miyun Reservoir. Besides
water storage function, they are the main measures of preventing rivers flood.
(2) Preventing waterlogging and flood particularly in the urban area (1960-1969)
In this period, the focus is on controlling the urban water systems, including lakes and
rivers. Several former river courses and streams were buried under the cities.
(3) Reservoir pollution and water shortage (1970-1979)
In 1971, some toxic substances, e.g. hydroxybenzene, cyanogens and mercury, were
detected in the Guanting Reservoir. Since then, it took three years to improve water
quality in the reservoir until meeting the standard of potentially potable water. In 1978,
the Daning Reservoir (located just below the Lugou Bridge) completely dried up, which
signaled the era of rivers running dry in the downstream area of the YRB.
(4) Municipal water supply under stress (1980-1989)
In 1980 and 1981, water scarcity was very serious in the Hai River Basin and the total
amount of yearly surface water inflow of the Guanting and Miyun Reservoir decreased
dramatically to 0.514 billion m3 (about 1/4 of the average in the 1980s). Since the middle
of the 1980s, the two reservoirs stopped agriculture water supply and only supplied water
to the domestic and industrial sectors. The agriculture water use turned to groundwater
and the era of overly groundwater withdrawal started since then.
Meanwhile, the Guanting Reservoir was seriously polluted once again, due to the large
amount of wastewater discharged in the upstream area of the Yongding River. In order
to protect water sources, wastewater treatment plants started construction since the end
of the 1980s in the Beijing region.
(5) Over-exploited groundwater (1990-1999)
Since the middle of the 1990s, Beijing had been suffering from serious water scarcity.
Beginning from 1999, there were continuous nine drought years, with average annual
precipitation of 455 mm (21.9% less than the average annual precipitation of 585mm
during the period 1956-2000). On the other hand, due to serious water pollution, the
Guanting Reservoir was banned as a drinking water supply source. The Miyun Reservoir
had been the only surface water source supplied to the Beijing city for years.
(6) Continuous drought years since 2000
In august 2001, water bloom2 occurred in most of the urban rivers and lakes. In 2003,
upstream surface water inflow of the Guanting reservoir decreased rapidly and its annual
2 Dense aquatic population of microscopic photosynthetic organisms produced by an abundance
of nutrient salts in surface water, coupled with adequate sunlight for photosynthesis (for more
information, see http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/636972/water-bloom). One
visible phenomenon of water bloom is a fast growth of algae near or at rivers, lakes and ponds.
20
average water storage was less than 0.1 billion m3 since then. In 2003, the upstream river
courses of the Miyun Reservoir ran dry. Meanwhile, the amount of water stored in the
Miyun Reservoir decreased to 0.7 billion m3, only 0.25 billion m3 of water available for
use after deducting its dead storage volume.
4.3 The Social and Economic Context
The Beijing region has been experiencing fast population growth and a rapid
urbanization rate during the last 60 years (see Figure 4.3). In 1949, its total population
was only 4.2 million, of which 1.8 million (43%) inhabitants living in the urban area. In
1980, there were 9.04 million inhabitants in total, among which 5.2 million (58%) lived in
the urban area. In 2008, however, the total registered population reached 16.95 million,
of which 14.39 million (85%) lived in the city centre and near suburbs. The average
population density in 2008 was 1,033 persons per km2. The large amount of population
has posed huge challenges on its fragile water systems in the region, with respect to water
supply, sanitation, aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, etc.
Figure 4.3 Population growth and urbanization in Beijing Municipality, 1949-2008 (based on
data from BMBS 2010)
On the other hand, the regional gross domestic product (GDP) keeps growing since
1978. During the period 1978-2008, the regional GDP had increased from 10.9 billion
Chinese Yuan to 1,048.8 billion Chinese Yuan. Correspondingly, the GDP per capita had
increased from 1,257 Chinese Yuan in 1978 to 63,029 Chinese Yuan in 2008.
To cope with the emergent problems caused by rapid urban development, the Overall
Urban Planning (2004-2020) was issued in 2005, which emphasizes the urban
development scale, regional cooperation, and systematic solutions to ecosystems
protection, traffic congestion, and higher standards for urban infrastructure construction.
Successful implementation of the new urban plan is crucial to achieving the strategic
development vision of moving towards a sustainable urban area.
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Figure 4.4 Growth of GDP and GDP per capita in Beijing Municipality, 1949-2008 (base on
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The new “Overall Urban Planning” clearly puts forward four development aims, i.e.,
national capital, world city, liveable city, and cultural city. It brings forward a new urban
spatial pattern, which can be summarized as “two axes - two belts - multiple centres” (see
Figure 4.5). Furthermore, it is supposed to form new city-town structure, i.e. “central
urban area - new city - county”. The central urban area will be the political, economic
and cultural centre of Beijing region which is supposed to be around 1,085 km2 (Jiang
2004). However, the key problem is how to deal with the traditional urban development
contradictions, e.g. water allocation between the rural area and the urban area, economic
development vs. environmental protection, water supply management vs. water demand
management.
Figure 4.5 Strategic structure of Beijing‟s urban spatial development described in the “Overall
Urban Planning (2004-2020)” (after BMCUP 2005)
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Moreover, this master planning also sets standards for population control, which is
supposed to be about 18 million (8.5 million living in the urban central area) in 2020
(BMCUP 2005). This number is suggested based on a natural population growth rate and
considering by the water resources carrying capacity in the Beijing region. Already in
2009, however, Beijing‟s population had reached 17.55 million (BSIN 2010), 0.6 million
higher compared with that in 2008. During the three consecutive years – 2007, 2008 and
2009 – the population has increased with more than 0.5 million people per year.
In order to meet various socio-economic water demands since the 1980s, water systems
in the Beijing region have been intensively disturbed. At present, the water situation in
Beijing Municipality is far from satisfactory from both water quantity and water quality
perspectives. Diverse water-related conflicts nowadays are more obvious in river basins as
well as between nature and human society. In the near future, the vulnerable water
systems may be further aggravated by many factors, e.g. urbanization, population growth,
pollutants discharge, and potential climate change.
23
5 RESULTS
5.1 Water Quantity Changes
5.1.1 Precipitation variation
Due to climate variation, yearly precipitation is unevenly distributed in the Beijing region
(see Figure 5.1). During the period 1724-2009, the average annual precipitation is around
600 mm. Based on the monitoring data at the Beijing Rainfall Station from 1724 to 1949
(Gao et al. 1987), the highest yearly precipitation was 1,401.1 mm (in 1891) and the
lowest was 242 mm (in 1869).
Figure 5.1 Yearly precipitation at the Beijing Rainfall Station (1724-1949) and in the Beijing
region (1950-2009) (based on data from Gao et al. 1987; Dou & Zhao 2006; BMBS 2010)
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During the period 1950-2009, the maximum annual precipitation was 1,005.6 mm (in
1954); the minimum value was 373 mm (in 1999) in the Beijing region. However, the
average annual precipitation is similar between the period 1734-1949 and 1950-2009. The
former is 603.4 mm based on the data at the Beijing Rainfall Monitoring Station. The
latter is 588.7 mm in the whole Beijing region.
On the other hand, precipitation is unevenly distributed spatially (see Figure 5.2). During
the period 1956-2000, the average annual precipitation in the Beijing region was 584.7
mm (576.9 mm in the mountain area and 597.2 mm in the plain area). Among the five
river basins, the Jiyun River Basin (JRB) had the highest annual average precipitation of
666.3 mm; and the Yongding River Basin (YRB) had the lowest value of 512.8 mm.
Moreover, precipitation in the mountain area was higher than that in the plain area in the
DRB and JRB; in contrast, precipitation in the plain area was more than that in the
mountain area in the other three river basins.
Figure 5.2 Spatial distribution of annual average precipitation in the fiver river basins and the
Beijing region, 1956-2000 (based on data from Dou & Zhao 2006)
5.1.2 Surface water inflow (SWI)
Besides local precipitation, surface water inflow is the other main surface water source.
In Beijing Municipality, there are four river basins with their main river streams flowing
through the region, expect the Beiyun River Basin. In this context, the changes of
renewable freshwater resources in the Beijing region to a large extent depend on the
amount of surface water inflow from the upstream areas of river basins.
Similar to the trends of precipitation, the surface water inflows were unevenly distributed
spatially and temporally during the period 1961-2009 (see Figure 5.3). The average annual
surface water inflow of the Beijing region was 1,531.7 million m3, with a highest value of
590.6
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4,334.3 million m3 (in 1964) and a lowest value of 303 million m3 (in 2009). In the YRB,
the highest average annual surface water inflow was 1,889.2 million m3 (in 1967); but the
lowest was only 44 million m3 (in 2009). Among the four river basins with the upstream
inflows, the YRB accounts for around 50% of the total surface water inflow of the
Beijing region. The second largest one is the CRB, which accounts for around 40% of
the total surface water inflow.
Figure 5.3 Surface water inflow of the Beijing region (based on data from Dou & Zhao 2006;
BWA 2001-2010)
As can be seen from Figure 5.3, the amount of surface water inflow had a decreasing
trend since the 1980s, compared with that between 1961 and 1980. This decreasing trend
was much obvious since 2000. The average annual surface water inflow of Beijing
Municipality was 2,396.9 million m3 in the period 1961-1980, 1,160.6 million m3 between
1981 and 2000, while only 445.3 million m3 from 2003 to 2009. For each of the river
basins except the JRB, there was also a fast decreasing trend with respect to the surface
water inflow. The YRB had the most obvious decreasing surface water inflow. During the
period 1961-1980, there was 1,044.9 million m3 of surface water flowing into the region
in average per year. However, it decreased to 333.3 million m3 between 1981 and 2000,
and only 108.1 million m3 from 2003 to 2009.
During the period 1956-1969, the amount of surface water inflow of the YRB was
consistent with the changes of the upstream precipitation; but their gaps had become
larger since 1970 (see Figure 5.4). There are two main factors contributing to the
decreasing surface water inflow. Firstly, the average annual precipitation in the upstream
area of the Guanting reservoir in the Yongding River Basin has a decreasing trend. The
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average annual precipitation between 1956 and 1969 was 429.9 mm; it decreased to 396.9
mm in the period 1970-2000. From 1980 to 2000, the average annual precipitation was
390 mm, which decreased by 9.3% compared with that during the period 1956-1969.
Secondly, excessive human interventions in the upstream area had substantially
contributed to a fast decreasing amount of surface water inflow since the 1970s.
Comparing the period 1956-1969 and 1970-2000, the average annual precipitation
decreased only by 7.7%; however, the average annual surface water inflow of the YRB in
the Beijing region decreased by 65.3%. Besides, various human activities in the upstream
area are the other main contributing factor. A variety of water storage projects have been
constructed in the upstream area of the YRB, including two large-scale reservoirs (named
Cetian and Youyi) and 16 middle-scale reservoirs. Moreover, due to rapid socio-economic
development, excessive water withdrawals in the upstream area of the YRB are popular.
Those activities in the upstream of the YRB have greatly affected the natural river flows
and resulted in a decreasing amount of surface water inflow of its downstream Yongding
river reaches in the Beijing region.
Figure 5.4 Changes of the surface water inflow of the YRB and the average annual precipitation
in the upstream area of the Guanting reservoir in the YRB, 1956-2000 (based on data from Dou
& Zhao 2006)
5.1.3 Surface water outflow (SWO)
The amount of yearly surface water outflow of the Beijing region shows a decreasing
trend since the 1980s, compared with that in the 1960s and the 1970s (see Figure 5.5). In
Beijing Municipality, the average annual amount of surface water outflow was 2,361.7
million m3 from 1961 to 1980; however, it decreased to 1,547.1 million m3 during the
period 1981-2000, and to 837.7 million m3 between 2001 and 2009. The relatively less
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amount of surface water outflow of the region happened in both the 1980s and the
2000s.
For the five river basins in the region, they have a similar trend with the whole Beijing
region, regarding the amount of surface water outflow. However, the most obvious
changes happen in the YRB. During the period 1961-2009, its highest value was 605.7
million m3 (in 1967); but there was zero surface water outflow for 15 years in total (1981-
1983, 1986-1993 and 1997-2000) from 1981 to 2000. The least changes happen in the
BRB, which has the main drainage river system of Beijing Municipality. During the
period 1961-2000, the average annual surface water outflow in the BRB was 903.3 million
m3, accounting for 46.2% of the total surface water outflow (1,954.4 million m3) in the
Beijing region. In contrast with the other four river basins from 2003 to 2009, the
average annual surface water outflow in the BRB was 713.4 million m3, accounting for
85.2% of the total amount of surface water outflow in the Beijing region (837.7 million
m3).
Figure 5.5 Surface water outflow of the Beijing region (based on data from Dou & Zhao 2006;
BWA 2001-2010)
In Brief, there are three significant factors – surface water inflow (SWI), local
precipitation and wastewater discharge – that influence the amount of surface water
outflow (SWO) of the region. As can be seen from Figure 5.3 and Figure 5.5, the peak
period and changing trends of surface water inflow and outflow of the Beijing region are
almost consistent. To some extent, this phenomenon may implicate that the total amount
of SWI determines the total amount of SWO in the Beijing region if we do not consider
the extreme climate variation locally.
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Precipitation in the Beijing region is the second significant impact factor of the total
amount of SWO. Here, the locally originated Beiyun River Basin (BRB) and the Beijing
region can be taken as two examples demonstrating the impacts of local precipitation
(see Figure 5.6). In general, the amount of SWO changes along with the amount of
precipitation in the BRB during the period 1961-2000. This point is also reflected by the
changes of the average annual SWO and precipitation in the Beijing region from 2001 to
2009.
Figure 5.6 Precipitation and the composition of surface water outflows of the BRB (1961-2000)
and the Beijing region (2001-2009) (based on data from Dou & Zhao 2006; BWA 2002-2010)
The third impact factor of the SWO is the amount of wastewater discharge, which is
reflected in the BRB having most of the Drainage Rivers in the Beijing region (see Figure
5.6). However, the proportion of fresh river water and discharged wastewater in the
SWO is annually different. For the surface water outflow of the BRB, the average annual
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Beiyun River Basin
freshwater wastewater precipitation
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29
discharged wastewater accounted for 19.02% in the 1960s, for 37.52% in the 1970s, for
51.88% in the 1980s, and for 9.6% from 1991 to 2000, with an average annual
precipitation of 592.1 mm, 591.9 mm, 509.1 mm and 553.8 mm, respectively. For the
Beijing region, the average annual discharged wastewater accounted for 69.7% of the
total amount of SWO in the period 2001-2009, with an average annual precipitation of
485.3 mm. In the present study, however, there is still not any evidence to explain the fast
decreasing amount of wastewater discharge in the BRB in the 1990s. The other
explanation may be of data error from 1990 to 2000 in the reference source (Dou & Zhao
2006).
5.2 Water Uses and Regional Water Deficits
5.2.1 Water supply and water uses
With rapid urbanization, industrialization and population growth, a huge amount of
freshwater is required to meet different requirement. Considering the limited freshwater
resources, the large amount of water demand will cause intensive water allocation
conflicts among different water sectors (see Figure 5.7). The total amount of water use
kept increasing from 4.11 billion m3 in 1990 up to 4.64 billion m3 in 1992. After 1992, the
total amount of water use had a decreasing trend and was down to 3.55 billion m3 in
2009. From 2002 to 2009, the total amount of water use in different sectors was around
3.5 billion m3, around 14% less compared with that in 1990. This is mainly due to the
tremendous efforts of water conservation particularly in the industrial and agricultural
sectors. The amount of annual industrial water use had decreased from 1.55 billion m3 in
1992 to 0.52 billion m3 in 2009. Similarly, the amount of annual agricultural water use had
decreased from 2.44 billion m3 in 1989 to 1.20 billion m3 in 2009.
Figure 5.7 Water used in different sectors in Beijing Municipality, 1988-2009 (based on data
from BWA 1989-2010)
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30
However, the amount of domestic water use kept increasing from 0.64 billion m3 in 1988
to 1.47 billion m3 in 2009. In 2000, the amount of domestic water use, for the first time,
exceeded the amount of industrial water use. The other change is the amount of
environmental water use, which kept increasing since 2003 and reached 0.36 billion m3 in
2009. Due to rapid population growth and increasing living standards, the amount of
domestic and environmental water uses may continue increasing, which probably causes
more water allocation conflicts among different water sectors in the near future.
The large amount of water demands for different purposes brings about a huge
challenge to the vulnerable water systems in the Beijing region. Due to decreasing surface
water inflow and precipitation in the Beijing region, the amount of surface water supply
keeps decreasing in recent years (see Table 5.1). During the period 2000-2009, around
2/3 of the total amount of water supply was from groundwater, which was up to 78% in
2004. In 2008, for the first time, the amount of reclaimed wastewater use exceeded the
amount of surface water use. Since 2004, the amount of reclaimed wastewater use kept
increasing, which reached 0.65 billion m3 (18.3% of the total amount of water supply) in
2009. Correspondingly, the amount of groundwater withdrawal kept decreasing, which
decreased to 2.18 billion m3 (61.4% of the total amount of water supply) in 2009.
Table 5.1 Amount of water supplied from different sources and used in different sectors in the
Beijing region, 1980-2009
Year
Water Supply (billion m3) Water Use (billion m
3)
Surface Ground Other3 Total Agriculture Industry Domestic Environment
1980 2.49 2.29 0 4.78 3.06 1.31 0.40 0.01
1985 1.22 2.60 0 3.82 2.11 1.04 0.63 0.04
1990 1.32 2.33 0 3.65 1.88 0.93 0.80 0.04
1995 1.24 2.71 0.01 3.96 1.84 1.05 1.03 0.04
2000 1.33 2.71 0.01 4.05 1.78 0.99 1.24 0.04
2005 0.70 2.49 0.26 3.45 1.32 0.68 1.34 0.11
2009 0.46 2.18 0.91 3.55 1.20 0.52 1.47 0.36
Source: based on data from BWA (1989-2010) and BWA (2006)
There are two main kinds of freshwater supply systems, i.e. tap water supply and well
water supply (see Figure 5.8). The quantity of yearly tap water supply increased from 7.1
million m3 in 1949 to 829.9 million m3 in 2004. Most tap water is supplied to domestic
and industrial water use, except a small proportion of agricultural water use between
1984 and 2000. From 1949 to 2008, the percent of domestic tap water use varied
3 Other water sources mainly refer to reclaimed wastewater. In this table, it also includes the
amount of inter-basin water transfer (0.07 billion m3 in 2008 and 0.26 billion m3 in 2009).
31
between 93% (in 1951) and 48.7% (in 1973). From 2000 to 2008, the amount of
domestic water use accounted for around 80% of the total amount of tap water supply.
On the other hand, well water supply started from 1981. In the 1980s, water supplied
from wells was mainly for the domestic and agricultural purposes; and the latter
accounted for around 60% of total amount of well water supply. Since the 1990s, well
water supply was mainly used for domestic and industrial purposes. In the 1990s, more
than half of well water was supplied to industry; around 57.2% of the total amount of
well water supply was used by the domestic sector from 2000 to 2008.
Figure 5.8 Yearly amount of tap water supply and well water4 supply, 1949-2008 (based on data
from BMBS 2010)
5.2.2 Water deficits and decreasing groundwater table
Although the total amount of water withdrawals has a decreasing trend since 2000, water
systems in the Beijing region are still under tremendous pressure. It is mainly caused by
4 There are various types of wells in the Beijing region, e.g. drinking water well, industrial water
well and irrigation well. Here, it refers to all wells in the Beijing region.
0
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32
the large deficits between the amount of available freshwater resources and the total
amount of water withdrawals. For the Beijing region, the available freshwater resources
include two main parts: the renewable fresh water resources (RFWR) from local
precipitation and the surface water inflow from the upstream area of the region. Here,
one assumption is that the amount of total available freshwater resources would be used
as water sources, regardless of evapotranspiration and ecological water requirements in
river basins. This is not the case in practice; but it can greatly simplify the following brief
comparisons. Under this hypothesis, therefore, the amount of water deficits discussed
below is actually the minimum value and the actual amount of water deficit would be
much larger.
As can be seen from Figure 5.9, water deficits in the Beijing region varied between 0.67
billion m3 (in 2005) and 1.62 billion m3 (in 2000) from 2000 to 2009. During this period,
the amount of average annual water deficit is 0.93 billion m3. However, there is only one
exception happened in 2008, then there was 0.64 billion m3 of water surplus. This is
mainly caused by higher yearly precipitation. In 2008, the average annual precipitation
was 638 mm, higher than the average annual precipitation of 607 mm during the period
1950-2000. Considering general relationship between precipitation and the RFWR in the
region, it may implicate that the water surplus situation would happen more often given
higher yearly precipitation level in the future.
Figure 5.9 Comparison of the annual amount of renewable freshwater resources (RFWR)5,
surface water inflow, and water withdrawals in the Beijing region, 2000-2009 (based on data from
BWA 1989-2010)
5 Here, the RFWR refers to the sum of locally available surface water and groundwater
transformed from precipitation in the Beijing region.
0
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700
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ater
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RFWR (Beijing region) surface water inflowwater withdrawals precipitationaverage precipitation (1956-2000)
33
In order to meet the large water deficits in the Beijing region, groundwater resources
have been overly withdrew particularly in the 2000s, which had resulted in a decreasing
groundwater table in the plain area of Beijing Municipality (see Figure 5.10). At the end
of 1960, the depth to groundwater in the plain area was 3.19 m, and it was 7.24 m at the
end of 1980. However, the depth to groundwater had increased fast from 11.88 m in
1998 to 24.07 m in 2009, with an average annual increasing rate of 1.02 m. In the end of
June 2009, the ground water table reached 24.38 m that was the highest value since 1978.
Compared the yearly groundwater situation in 2009 with that in 1980, the depth to
groundwater have dropped by 16.83 m and the total groundwater storage in the region
has decreased by 8.62 billion m3 (BWA 2010).
Figure 5.10 Decreasing groundwater table6 of the plain area in the Beijing region, 1960-2009
(based on data from BWA 2001-2010)
5.3 Water Quality Changes
5.3.1 Point and non-point source pollution
Together with the limited water quantity, wastewater associated with pollutants
discharged has caused huge pressure on the vulnerable water systems in the Beijing
region too. During the period 1996-2009, the amount of average annual wastewater
discharge was 1.292 billion m3; varying between 1.057 billion m3 (in 1996) and 1.365
billion m3 (in 2009) (see Figure 5.11). But the proportion of wastewater discharge from
different sectors has changed greatly. From 1996 to 2005, the amount of average annual
wastewater discharge from industry was 0.554 billion m3, while it decreased to 0.092
billion m3 between 2006 and 2008. This was mainly due to a decreasing amount of
industrial water use, owing to water conservation measures and an increased rate of
wastewater reclamation. In contrast, the amount of domestic wastewater keeps
increasing, from 0.536 billion m3 in 1996 to 1.236 billion m3 in 2008.
6 It refers to the depth to groundwater monitored at the end of each year.
0
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34
Figure 5.11 Amount of yearly wastewater discharge in the Beijing region, 1996-2009 (based on
data from BWA 1989-2010)
In order to alleviate the negative impacts of the increasing amount of wastewater
discharge, the Beijing government has put many efforts on wastewater collection and
disposal. As can be seen from Figure 5.12, the daily amount of wastewater discharge in
the region had increased from 6.6×104 m3 in 1954 to 361.9×104 m3 in 2008, though it
once decreased from 369.2×104 m3 in 1992 to 237.1×104 m3 in 2001. On the other hand,
the average annual wastewater treatment rate varied between 6.6% (in 1991) and 10.9%
(in 1982) from 1954 to 1991. The wastewater treatment rate of 1.2% was in 1992, due to
the highest amount of yearly wastewater discharge then. Before 1992, wastewater in
Beijing Municipality only was primarily treated, e.g. by means of stabilization ponds. With
an increasing awareness of public health risk from polluted water, wastewater treatment
plants construction was on the agenda of the Beijing government. Since then, the yearly
wastewater treatment rate had increased from 3.1% in 1993 to 78.9% in 2008.
Due to many efforts on wastewater treatment and pollution reduction, the total amount
of yearly COD (chemical oxygen demand) discharge keeps decreasing in recent years (see
Figure 5.13). The total amount of COD discharge was 17.85×104 m3 in 2000 and
9.88×104 m3 in 2009, with an average annual decreasing amount of 0.797×104 m3. The
amount of industrial COD discharge decreased from 4.93×104 m3 in 1998 to 0.5×104 m3
in 2008. Similarly, the amount of domestic COD discharge decreased from 15.7×104 m3
in 2000 to 9.63×104 m3 in 2008, though the amount of domestic wastewater kept
increasing in the period. Even so, the total amount of COD discharge in 2009 was still
higher than the theoretical annual maximum amount of COD carry capacity of 7.8×104
m3 (Ouyang et al. 2009), considering all river courses in the Beijing region.
0.0
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bill
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Wastewater Discharge
domestic
industrial
total
35
Figure 5.12 Daily wastewater discharge and yearly wastewater treatment rate in the Beijing
region, 1954-2008 (based on data from BMBS 2010)
Figure 5.13 Amount of COD discharge from different sectors in the Beijing region, 1998-
2009 (based on data from BWA 1997-2010; BMEPB 2001-2009; NBS & MEP 2009)
Another important characteristic of wastewater discharge is the uneven distribution in
the five main river basins. This characteristic can be observed in terms of the statistics of
the numbers of sewage outfall and the amount of wastewater discharge in 2003 (see
Figure 5.14). In general, there are three kinds of sewage outfall: domestic, industrial and
combined7. Among the five river basins, the Beiyun RB (BRB) has the largest numbers
7 A combined sewage system collects sanitary sewage and storm water runoff in one single pipe
system.
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ater treatmen
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aste
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36
for all of the three kinds of sewage outfall, and the Daqing RB (DRB) has only 1
domestic and 4 combined sewage outfall in 2003 (Dou & Zhao 2006). Correspondingly,
around 80% of the total amount of wastewater was discharged in the BRB in 2003.
Figure 5.14 Numbers of sewage outfall and amount of wastewater discharged in 2003 (based on
data from Dou & Zhao 2006)
Similarly to the uneven distribution of the sewage outfall and the amount of wastewater
discharge, the amount of pollutants discharge is also different in river basins (see Figure
5.15). The proportion of the total amount of pollutants discharged in 2003 was as
follows: COD accounted for 80.1%, nitrogen was 12.8%, ammonia-nitrogen was 5.7%,
and Phosphorous was 1.4% (Dou & Zhao 2006). For the five river basins, the Beiyun RB
(BRB) received around 86% of the total amount of pollutant discharged; and the Daqing
RB (DRB) had only 1.2% that was the least.
Figure 5.15 Amount of pollutants discharge in the five river basins in 2003 (based on data from
Dou & Zhao 2006)
0
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Daqing RB Yongding RB Chaobai RB Beiyun RB Jiyun RB
Am
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f WW
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um
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utf
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domestic industrial combined sewage amount of WW discharged
0
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Daqing RB Yongding RB Chaobai RB Beiyun RB Jiyun RB
Po
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P
NH3-N
COD
37
For the non-point pollutants, the collected data in the present study only is the amount
of yearly fertilizer use. As can be seen from Figure 5.16, the amount of fertilizer use
increased fast in the 1960s and the 1970s. From 1961 to 1980, the amount of yearly
fertilizer use increased from 8,609 tons to 123,000 tons. Although it decreased to 82,000
tons in 1985, it increased to the highest amount of 197,000 tons in 1997. After 1997, it
had a decreasing trend and reached to 136,000 tons in 2008. Besides the point source
pollutant of COD from domestic and industrial wastewater, the non-point source
pollution from agriculture – e.g. using pesticide and fertilizer – are other contributors to
water pollution of both surface water and groundwater.
Figure 5.16 Amount of yearly fertilizer use in the Beijing region, 1949-2008 (based on data from
BMBS 2010)
5.3.2 Surface water quality
Due to a huge amount of wastewater and pollutants discharge, river water has gradually
been polluted since the 1980s. In recent years, water quality issues have received many
and more attentions. This may be reflected from the yearly increasing length of river
courses monitored by BWA. In 2001, there was only 952 km river courses monitored; but
it increased to 2,323.7 km in 2009. As can be seen from Figure 5.17, the fraction of river
water quality kept changing between 2001 and 2009 (BWA, 2002-2010). The most
obvious change was the river length classified as Grade I-III and Grade V worse. The
proportion of the river length classified as Grade I-III was 72.3% (788.6 km) in 2004,
which decreased to 47% (1,078.6 km) in 2009. On the contrary, the river length classified
as Grade V worse was 26.2% (286.1 km) in 2004, which increased to 45% (1,064.7 km) in
2009. During the same period, however, the percentage of the river length classified as
Grade IV and Grade V had changed very few.
Due to the centralized wastewater treatment and different water sources protection
strategies, water quality is largely different in the five main river basins (see Figure 5.18).
Regarding the four large-scale reservoirs in 2008, on the one hand, three of them –
Miyun, Huairou and Haizi – were classified as Grade II; but the Guanting Reservoir was
0
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38
classified as Grade IV (BWA 2009). On the other hand, it is not surprising that most of
the river courses classified as Grade II or Grade III are in the upstream area of the
Beijing city, because they are of the water protection area so as to ensure surface water
supply with acceptable quality. However, most of the river courses in the BRB are
seriously polluted and classified as Grade V worse in recent years.
Figure 5.17 River water quality of the Beijing region, 2001-2009 (based on data from BWA
2002-2010)
Figure 5.18 Surface water quality of the Beijing Region in 2008 (after BWA 2009)
0
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monitoredriver course
Grade I-III
Grade IV
Grade V
Grade Vworse
39
5.3.3 Groundwater quality
Due to the lower wastewater treatment rate for many years in the Beijing region,
groundwater has been polluted too. A large amount of wastewater has been directly
discharged into river courses and seepage wells. Moreover, there are a huge amount of
pollutants discharged by using fertilizer and pesticide in agriculture. As can be seen from
Figure 5.19, the groundwater quality is changing spatially; but those classified as Grade
IV and Grade V are located in the BRB and the downstream of the other river basins.
This kind of water quality situation also reflects the strong upstream-downstream
conflicts in river basins.
Figure 5.19 Groundwater quality of the Beijing region in 2004 (after BWA 2005)
In recent years, with increased rate of wastewater treatment, the proportion of seriously
polluted groundwater quality has decreased slightly (see Figure 5.20). For the shallow
aquifer (the depth of monitor well less than 150 m), those classified as Grade V had
decreased from 25% in 2003 to 22.7% in 2009, while those classified as Grade III also
decreased from 55% in 2003 to 52% in 2009 (BWA 2010). This is caused by a higher
value of hardness, ammonia-nitrogen and nitrate-nitrogen.
As a result of pollutants seepage and excessive groundwater withdrawals, shallow aquifer
and even deep groundwater in some areas, has been under higher risk of pollution for
years. Water quality of deep groundwater (the depth of monitor well between 150 m and
300 m) is better, compared with that of the shallow aquifer. In 2009, those classified as
Grade III and Grade IV-V was 84% and 16%, respectively. The main pollutants were
40
ammonia-nitrogen and fluoride (BWA 2010). In 2006, however, deep groundwater
classified as Grade III and Grade IV-V was 85.6% and 14.4%, respectively, with higher
concentration of ammonia-nitrogen, iron and manganese (BWA 2007). This may show
that the deep groundwater is gradually under crisis, caused by a variety of pollutants
discharge.
Figure 5.20 Fraction of the shallow aquifer quality in the Beijing region, 2003-2009 (based on
data from BWA 1989-2010)
0
10
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30
40
50
60
2003 2004 2005 2007 2008 2009
Frac
tio
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f gr
ou
nd
wat
erq
ual
ity
, %
Grade III
Grade IV
Grade V
41
6 DISCUSSION
6.1 Water Quantity Changes
Within the scope of the present study, the water quantity system in the Beijing region is
affected by a variety of factors, both the internal factors (precipitation and the prevailing
water use pattern) and the external factors (upstream surface water inflow and inter-basin
water transfer). These factors vary at different spatial and temporal scales, which may be
similar to other countries in arid and semi-arid regions. However, water systems changes
must to be discussed in the specific socio-economic and ecological context at different
scales. Based on the results of the present study, we could conclude that both the internal
and external factors contributed to the current severe water situation in the Beijing
region; but human interventions may play a more important role than climate variations
in water quantity changes.
For climate and precipitation changes, their overall impacts on water systems in the
Beijing region is not very clear based on the evidence collected in the present study.
There are nine continuous drought years from 1999 to 2007, with a yearly precipitation
below the average value since 1956. However, one question is whether it is one of the
main contributors to the current water scarcity? Here, the following two points may aid
our understanding of the local water quantity environment employing a retrospective
perspective. Firstly, there were similar continuous drought years happened in history, e.g.
during the period 1728-1936 and 1739-1760. Secondly, the diversity of the annual
average precipitation is not large during the two periods 1724-1949 (603.4 mm) and
1950-2009 (588.7 mm). In this regard, perhaps we may conclude that the recent
continuous dry years seem normal in history; but the main difference is the environment
of human society in the past and now.
Compared to the „doubtful‟ impact of precipitation on the current water scarcity
situation, one fact without doubt is the total surface water inflows of the Beijing region
that has kept decreasing since the 1980s (cf. Figure 5.3). This is mainly due to the
upstream human intervention of excessive water withdrawals to meet rapid socio-
economic development. Here, the problem is how this kind of upstream-downstream
conflicts can be effectively addressed in the near future. In terms of the general
principles of IWRM, the best unit for water management is a river basin, with its
hydrological boundary. In practice, however, water resources are usually managed in
terms of its administrative boundary, e.g. a city, a region and a country. In this context,
the local/regional water planning mainly compete for more upstream surface water
inflows, while often neglecting its surface water outflows into the downstream region.
To some extent, we could say that we all live in both the upstream and downstream of a
river basin (cf. 3.1), depending on how to set out the systems boundary. However, we all
live on the same river in a river basin. The health of a river system depends on the
activities of all its upstream-downstream water users, and vice versa.
42
This kind of upstream-downstream water allocation conflicts are not easy to negotiate
among different administrative regions in a river basin. Based on the institutional
framework for water resources management in China (Song et al. 2011b), the State
Council has the right to judge such regional water conflicts issues as those among
provinces. In order to alleviate water stress in Beijing Municipality, the State Council had
also issued a regulation in 2007 on ensuring the upstream surface water inflow of the
Guanting reservoir in the Yongding River Basin (State Council 2007). In terms of the
regulation on the minimum amount of surface water flowing into the Guanting reservoir,
the upstream Hebei province must ensure 300 million m3 of water during years with
normal precipitation and 60 million m3 of water during extremely drought years. This
regulation sounds rational; but the point is that Hebei province is also suffering from a
severe water supply crisis to meet its various socio-economic development water
demands. In brief, the question still doesn't change in essence: how to wisely manage the
limited water quantity in a river basin to meet the various socio-economic and ecological
water demands?
In a river basin, we to some extent agree that a clear river basin water allocation
plan/permit among the relevant region is helpful to ensure the downstream surface water
inflow of each region, even the minimum amount of water flow in the river. However,
this water supply management is probably not the best solution, compared to water
demand management. Even located in a semi-arid area, water stress in the Beijing region
may be alleviated if water conservation, together with a sustainable urban development
strategy, could be kept emphasizing. In this way, besides technological innovations,
tremendous efforts should be put on water resources planning and management, e.g.
shifting to water demand management, improving the rate of water/wastewater recycling
rate, and institutional capacity building for IWRM.
To move from water supply management to water demand management, first of all, the
historical water allocation and uses need to be investigated in different sectors. When
exploring the reasons for water scarcity in the Beijing region, one popular opinion is that
it is located in a semi-arid area with much less precipitation particularly in recent years.
This opinion is impartial from the perspective of system‟s inputs.
However, we may have another complementary opinion that a systems perspective is
required so as to investigate the „black box‟ of the system under investigation, e.g. with a
focus on specific water use sector. Here, we can take the historical agricultural water use
in the Beijing region as an example. As can be seen from Table 5.1, the amount of
agricultural water use keeps decreasing since 1980. However, it is not due to improved
agricultural irrigation efficiency in the all time. As can be seen from Figure 6.1, the total
arable land area in the Beijing region has decreased fast, e.g. from 413,000 hectares8 in
1991 to 236,000 hectares in 2004, with a relatively stable period between 1991-1995,
1996-2000 and 2004-2008. Figure 6.1 shows the other reason for the decreasing trend
8 A metric unit of area, 1 hectare = 10,000 m2
43
particularly since 2000, i.e. the decreasing amount of arable land area and irrigation area.
In a similar way, the trend of domestic and industrial water uses also worth further
detailed investigation in order to have a more holistic picture of water quantity changes
in different sectors. This is prerequisite to find out more sustainable water resources
planning, development and management in the Beijing region.
Figure 6.1 Changes of arable land area and irrigation area in the Beijing region, 1949-2008
(based on data from BMBS 2010)
6.2 Water Quality Changes
Similar to the water quantity changes, the water quality issue is also affected by a variety
of contributors. Based on the results of the present study, the main factors can be
summarized as non-point pollutants from agriculture and the rate of wastewater
treatment. On the one hand, the total amount of COD discharge from industrial and
domestic wastewater keeps decreasing since 2000, as mentioned in Chapter 5. However,
only the point source pollutants (COD from industrial and domestic wastewater) was
higher than the total pollutants carry capacity of all rivers in the Beijing region (cf. Figure
5.13), though the wastewater treatment rate had reached 78.9% in 2008. This implicates
that the quality of treated wastewater also needs to be improved substantially in the
future. Moreover, the non-point pollutants from agricultural pesticide and fertilizer uses
deserve more attentions as well.
On the other hand, the present study finds that the location of polluted river reaches is
determined by the spatial distribution of wastewater discharge. The most polluted river
courses in the Beijing region are in the Beiyun River Basin, into which most of municipal
wastewater is discharged. Moreover, the spatial distribution groundwater quality is similar
0.0
10.0
20.0
30.0
40.0
50.0
60.0
70.0
19
49
19
52
19
55
19
58
19
61
19
64
19
67
19
70
19
73
19
76
19
79
19
82
19
85
19
88
19
91
19
94
19
97
20
00
20
03
20
06
Lan
d a
rea,
10
4 h
ecta
re
arable land area
irrigation area
44
to that of surface water quality. The most polluted area of groundwater is located in the
downstream river courses, which is close to river courses flowing out of the Beijing
region.
In the near future, the Beijing region, along with its huge population and a fast
urbanizing rate, probably would continue facing up to tremendous challenges of
wastewater reduction and pollution prevention. Here, the question is whether wastewater
can be re-allocated among different river basins in the future? How to carry out water
sensitive planning in such a water-centric Overall Urban Planning (2004-2020), ensuring
adequate water supply with an acceptable water quality?
Considering the four stages of water use and pollution abatement (cf. Figure 3.5), Beijing
is not still at the second stage characterized as building of effluent treatment plants by
the public sector. Beijing may stay at the stage in the coming years to further improve its
overall wastewater treatment rate (around 80% at the moment) and the quality of treated
wastewater. On the other hand, Beijing is moving toward the third stage characterized as
reduction at source. Actually cleaner production techniques have been introduced in
China since the 1990s and the amount of industrial COD discharge keep decreasing in
recent years in the Beijing region. However, there are still many challenges to effectively
reduce pollutants discharged into nature, not only of nutrients like COD, Nitrogen and
Phosphorous but also other hazardous substances like heavy metals. Towards improved
water environment and more healthy ecosystems in the capital region, therefore, both
socio-technical systems innovation is required so as to reduce the quantity of water
use/wastewater, and to improve the quality of treated wastewater and of surface water
and groundwater.
6.3 Suggestions for Alleviating Water Stress in
Beijing Municipality
The emerging water crisis events in the Beijing region are caused by both water scarcity
and water pollution. Technological innovations – both on water conservation and
wastewater treatment – are crucial to achieving improved performances of water systems
in river basins. Considering the complexity of water systems, advances in technology
alone are not sufficient in many ways. Besides achieving socio-economic development,
humans should learn how to better live with rivers in a more harmonious way (ecological
sustainability). Absolutely, this requires a variety of efforts at all levels. Furthermore, the
South-to-North Water Transfer Project (SNWTP) may alleviate Beijing‟s water crisis in a
short time from the water quantity perspective; however, it can only be regarded as one
complementary measure, rather than a fundamental solution, in the long term.
Considering the current water situation and water management system, the following
three aspects of improvement are emphasized in the present study, including a promoted
water-centric value, institutional capacity building and employing economic principles for
45
water resources management. Definitely, there are several other aspects that are equally
important but less discussed in the present study, such as effective upstream-downstream
conflicts resolution as well as balancing water between human society and nature.
To alleviate the water crisis in Beijing Municipality, first of all, there should be a better
understanding of water values for decision-making, main stakeholder and the public. For
a rather long time, the popular value is that “Water is of renewable natural resources, and
humans can withdraw and consume it randomly”. It works well but only under a much
lower level of socio-economic development. In this context, various (large-scale) dams
have been constructed so as to ensure water supply.
With the development of modern society, however, various human activities have
severely disturbed the natural water cycle as well as resulting in such more water stresses
as water scarcity and pollution. In this context, the former value should be shifted to
such a promoted water centric one as the first Dublin principles (GWP 2000b): “Fresh
water is a finite and vulnerable resource, essential to sustain life, development and the
environment”. Here, the challenge is how to improve the understanding of water
resources in developing countries. This holds true to decision-makers and water
managers in Beijing municipality. The point is to emphasize that knowing the general
principles of IWRM is just a starting point and acting guided by the principles is of the
most importance.
Besides a better understanding of catchment systems (e.g. water flows, pollutant flux, and
aquatic and terrestrial ecosystem transitions), water institutional capacity building is the
other key aspect towards improved practices of water resources management. (Jury &
Vaux 2005) summarize a series of deficiencies that water institutions tend to embody,
including a focus on narrow interests, artificial divisions between the management of
water quality and the management of water quantity, multiple and fragmented
management jurisdictions across fundamental hydrologic units such as basins and
watersheds, and an absence of institutions that are designed to deal with the fundamental
problems of water scarcity. Considering the multiple water problems in Beijing
Municipality, further water institutional reforms are required in the near future as to
having holistic approaches to address the emerging water crisis events. Only in this way,
partially optimized measures may be avoided at a river basin level.
Moreover, employing economic principles, such as cost-recovery of water services and
the polluter-pay-principle (Song et al. 2010), could further contribute to improved
performances of water systems in the region. The current water price and wastewater
treatment fee is still very low, including that of agricultural water use (Dou & Zhao 2006).
This has indirectly contributed to the increasing water demand trend especially since the
1980s. Developing effective economic measures, together with technological innovations,
to a large extent could reduce the amount of water used in different sectors and
pollutants discharge to the nature environment. However, one important aspect with
respect to a rational water price system is to subsidize people with a lower income. This
46
aspect is very important to ensure everyone having access to the municipal water supply
system and the basic sanitation services, as well as to move towards a sustainable urban
development in the metropolitan region of Beijing.
47
7 CONCLUSIONS
This thesis has attempted to provide a comprehensive picture of the water situation in
Beijing Municipality, with an emphasis on water quality and water quantity. In order to
address water systems changes in a systems perspective, a conceptual framework is
developed to aid in understanding various water flows and pollutant flux at a scale of
river basin. The results of the present study show that a variety of factors have
contributed to the emerging water crisis events in the Beijing region, both the
internal/local factors (hydrological variation and water use patterns) and the external
factors (upstream surface water inflow and inter-basin water transfer).
From the water quantity perspective, the current water deficits and decreasing
groundwater tables are caused mainly by the following factors: hydrological variation,
surface water inflow, and water supply and used in different sectors. The hydrological
variation is characterized as unevenly distributed precipitation spatially and temporally.
The decreasing trend of local precipitation since the 1980s is one contributing factor of
water scarcity.
However, the most important impact factors of the water quantity changes may be the
human-oriented intervention to the water systems both in the upstream area and in
Beijing Municipality. The upstream human activities have resulted in a decreasing amount
of surface water inflow of the Beijing region. This fact could be demonstrated by the
case of the Yongding River, according to the trends of upstream precipitation and the
surface water inflow of the Guanting reservoir. For water supply and water used in
Beijing Municipality, the available freshwater, both surface water and groundwater
resources, have been overly exploited to meet the vast amount of socio-economic water
demand in recent decades. Although the total amount of water use has a decreasing
trend since 2000, tremendous efforts are needed to offset the current water deficits and
to balance water allocation to meet all water demands. Moreover, the negative impacts of
the two main inter-basin water supply projects – the YWSC and the JWSC – on the
downstream river courses should be effectively addressed, so as to prevent river courses
running dry.
On the other hand, the water quality changes are mainly caused by the large amount of
pollutants discharge from different sectors. Both point and non-point source pollutants
have contributed to the decreasing water quality situation, for both the river systems and
groundwater. Although the wastewater treatment rate has been increased and the amount
of COD discharge have been decreasing in recent years, the total amount of COD
discharge in 2009 was still higher than the maximum annual carry capacity of the river
systems in the Beijing region. Moreover, the spatial distribution of wastewater discharge
should be re-balanced, considering environmental water demands with an acceptable
water quality.
To improve the water performances in the Beijing region, a variety of efforts are required
48
in the near future from both the perspective of technological innovation and integrated
water resources management. Developing advanced technologies is important to water
conservation and pollution prevention. Moreover, a holistic institution approach is
crucial to facilitate the practices of integrated water resources management, including
employing economic principles. Finally, the various water stress problems in Beijing
Municipality must be addressed from the viewpoint of systems, which is prerequisite to
move towards a sustainable urban development in the metropolitan region of Beijing.
49
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