Research

Mitigating China's water scarcity and pollution

Environmental and economic accounting, modelling and policy analysis

PhD thesis (903 KB)

The scientific importance of plant-soil-water relations in water limited environments (WLE) has increased substantially in the last several years, due to the increase of awareness related to the impact of plants upon groundwater resources. Moreover, the evidence of an accelerated global warming, and the fact that nearly 60% of the world's population depends on groundwater resources, make apparent the need of a deep understanding of the phreatophytic vegetation consumption and dependency on groundwater.

In China, population growth has been rapid, and the progress of industrialization has also grown at a very fast pace. These changes have both direct and indirect strains on water resources, on its quantity and quality. So the water supply-demand balance would come under constant pressure. Some of these trends are already under way. In addition, regional acidification from industrial activity, water pollution (indirectly through air pollution and directly through discharge of pollutants from industrial activity and sewage disposal), desertification and soil erosion may also be major threats to water resources. All of the described changes come together to force an assessment of the carrying capacity of the biosphere of China, and limits may be reached in terms of sustainable level of development.

My PhD research, within collaboration among China Institute of Water Resource and Hydropower (IWHR), the University of Twente (UT) and ITC, aims to integrate water and economic modelling based on a hybrid water and economic accounting framework.