Spatiotemporal changes in water consumption structure of the Yellow River Basin, China

Abstract

Analyzing and summarizing the evolution law of water consumption structure and proposing corresponding control countermeasures are important for realizing the coordinated development of a regional social economy. In this study, Information entropy, Lorentz curve, Gini coefficient, and Mann-Kendall (MK) trend test were conducted to reveal the spatiotemporal variations in water use characteristics in the Yellow River Basin of China. The results showed a reduction of the dominant position of the single water consumption structure in the basin during 1998–2017, which eventually increased the equilibrium degree among water consumption sectors and made the water consumption structure more reasonable and diversified. The study identified three periods of water consumption structure transformation: 1998 to 2002 as the first growth period, and 2003 to 2012 as the adjustment period, 2013 to 2017 as the second growth period. The spatial distribution was found highly even for agricultural water consumption, while less even for industrial, domestic and ecological water use. The water consumption in agriculture was much higher compared to other sectors. The study can serve as the basis for the optimal utilization of water resources.