Journal of Hydrology xxx (2015) xxx–xxx

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Journal of Hydrology
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jhydrol

Sustainability assessment of regional water resources under the DPSIR

framework
Shikun Sun a,b,1, Yubao Wang a,b,1, Jing Liu c, Huanjie Cai a,b,⇑, Pute Wu b, Qingling Geng d, Lijun Xu e
a
College of Water Resource and Architectural Engineering, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China
b
Key Laboratory of Agricultural Soil and Water Engineering in Arid and Semiarid Areas, Ministry of Education, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China
c
College of Hydrology and Water Resources, Hohai University, Nanjing 210098, China
d
Key Laboratory of Ecological Restoration in Hilly Area, Pingdingshan University, Pingdingshan 467000, China
e
Zhejiang A&F University, College of Engineering, Hangzhou 310000, China

a r t i c l e i n f o s u m m a r y

Article history: Fresh water is a scarce and critical resource in both natural and socioeconomic systems. Increasing pop-
Received 28 July 2015 ulations combined with an increasing demand for water resources have led to water shortages world-
Received in revised form 27 October 2015 wide. Current water management strategies may not be sustainable, and comprehensive action should
Accepted 17 November 2015
be taken to minimize the water budget deficit. Sustainable water resources management is essential
Available online xxxx
This manuscript was handled by Geoff
because it ensures the integration of social, economic, and environmental issues into all stages of water
Syme, Editor-in-Chief, with the assistance of resources management. This paper establishes the indicators to evaluate the sustainability of water uti-
V. Ratna Reddy, Associate Editor lization based on the Drive-Pressure-Status-Impact-Response (DPSIR) model. Based on the analytic hier-
archy process (AHP) method, a comprehensive assessment of changes to the sustainability of the water
Keywords: resource system in the city of Bayannur was conducted using these indicators. The results indicate that
Water resources there is an increase in the driving force of local water consumption due to changes in society, economic
DPSIR development, and the consumption structure of residents. The pressure on the water system increased,
Indicators whereas the status of the water resources continued to decrease over the study period due to the increas-
Sustainability ing drive indicators. The local government adopted a series of response measures to relieve the decreas-
Assessment ing water resources and alleviate the negative effects of the increasing driver in demand. The response
measures improved the efficiency of water usage to a large extent, but the large-scale expansion in
demands brought a rebounding effect, known as ‘‘Jevons paradox” At the same time, the increasing emis-
sions of industrial and agriculture pollutants brought huge pressures to the regional water resources
environment, which caused a decrease in the sustainability of regional water resources. Changing med-
ium and short-term factors, such as regional economic pattern, technological levels, and water utilization
practices, can contribute to the sustainable utilization of regional water resources.
Ó 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V.

1. Introduction global climate change, and water quality deterioration (Chartres

and Varma, 2010; Emelko et al., 2011; Qu et al., 2013). According
Fresh water is an increasingly critical issue at the forefront of to the prediction, approximately 60% of the world’s population will
global policy change, management and planning (Grafton and face blue water shortages, and 36% will face both green and blue
Hussey, 2011). The imbalance between water availability and water shortages by 2050 (Rockström et al., 2009). One of the major
water demand causes water scarcity, which has become one of solutions to this global water crisis is improved management of
the most pressing issues in the world (Peterson and Schoengold, this valuable natural resource (Oelkers et al., 2011). Improving
2008). Rapidly expanding demand combined with increased com- the global management of water resources is one of the most cru-
petition over limited water resources has led to water shortages cial challenges of the 21st century (Jury and Vaux, 2005; Emelko
worldwide. The situation may worsen due to population growth, et al., 2011). Policy for the protection of water resources requires
a more holistic and integrated approach to transcend disciplinary
boundaries, overcome fragmented governance, and create solu-
⇑ Corresponding author at: College of Water Resource and Architectural Engi-
tions through collaborative planning (Bowmer, 2011, 2014). Cur-
neering, Northwest A&F University, Weihui Road 23, Yangling 712100, China.
rent water management practices are not sufficient to alleviate
E-mail address: [email protected] (H. Cai).
1
These authors contributed equally to this work. the global water crisis as the water ‘‘deficit” still continues to grow,

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2015.11.028
0022-1694/Ó 2015 Published by Elsevier B.V.

Please cite this article in press as: Sun, S., et al. Sustainability assessment of regional water resources under the DPSIR framework. J. Hydrol. (2015), http://
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2 S. Sun et al. / Journal of Hydrology xxx (2015) xxx–xxx

and comprehensive action should be taken to minimize this water environment, analyzing the overall system they comprise, and it
budget imbalance (Ayers, 2001; Wyatt et al., 2015). Meanwhile, is widely used in environmental systems to evaluate key indica-
mounting evidence shows that current water management and tors. This model also serves as a general framework for organizing
utilization practices are unsustainable (Gleick, 2010). Globally, information about the status of the environment (Westing, 1989;
water resources stakeholders are developing action plans and Elliott, 2002). The DPSIR framework contributes to the understand-
evolving toward the integration of participatory processes for ing of relationships between system ‘‘state” and ‘‘driver” factors
decision-making (Faust et al., 2013). Water resource systems are while helping hydrologists, water managers, policy makers, and
based on water circulation and the ecology of a region and there- the public understand and manage different water systems more
fore maintain the ecological balance among the sustainable devel- effectively and sustainably (Gleick and Palaniappan, 2010;
opment of water resources, the hydrological cycle, and the support Timmerman et al., 2011). Thus, the DPSIR framework is an effective
of social and economic development. An overview of sustainable approach used to explore the relationships between water
water resource management is essential because it can integrate resource systems and the socioeconomic system because it pro-
social, economic, and environmental aspects into all processes of vides an organized method for analyzing the causes, consequences
water resource management (Juwana et al., 2010; Gleick, 2010). and responses to changes in water systems (Fernando et al., 2013;
Sustainability assessments of regional water resources contribute Zhou et al., 2014).
to understanding the evolution of the water system and its influ- The aim of this paper is to assess the sustainability of regional
ences, which contributes to achieving the sustainable management water resource systems. An indicator framework based on the
of water resources. DPSIR model and analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method are
The DPSIR model originated from the Pressure-State-Response applied to synthesize the social and economic factors which may
(PSR) framework, which was established by the Organization of impact the sustainability of water resources and to understand
Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD, 1993). The DPSIR the major cause-and-effect relationships in regional water
framework evolved into the Driver, Pressure, State, Impact, and systems.
Response (DPSIR) model that more explicitly depicts how socioeco-
nomic development impacts the environment (Kelble et al., 2013).
Because the DPSIR model can capture the ‘‘cause–effect” relation- 2. Material and methods
ships between the sectors of social, economic, and environmental
systems, it has been widely applied to analyze the interacting pro- 2.1. Study area
cesses of human-environmental systems (Gabrielsen and Bosch,
2003; Feld et al., 2010; Pinto et al., 2013; Hou et al., 2014). The Bayannur, located in the province of Inner Mongolia (105°120 –
DPSIR model describes a general chain which triggers environmen- 109°590 E, 40°130 –40°280 ), is an area that faces serious water scar-
tal issues between the origin and the results. This chain indicates city in Northwest China (Fig. 1). The annual precipitation is approx-
that societal, economic and population development act as drivers imately 180 mm, and the annual average evaporation is more than
(D) on the environment, thus producing pressure (P) on it, which 2000 mm. Bayannur City is composed of 7 counties with an area of
gives rise to a change in its status (S) and thus affects it. All of these 6.44  104 km2 and a population of 1.67 million in 2010 (Bureau of
effects then either urge humans to respond (R) to the environmen- Statistic in Bayannur, 2010). Bayannur is a major agricultural pro-
tal status (S), changing the complex systems which consists of soci- duction region in Inner Mongolia, which has 0.70 million hectares
ety, economics and population, or directly act on environmental of cultivated lands. Water diverted from the Yellow River is the
pressure (P), status (S) and influence (I). This model looks at major source for the study area, and the annual diversion of water
the interaction between socioeconomic development and the from the Yellow River is approximately 5 Gm3. Increased cultivated

Fig. 1. Location of the study area.

Please cite this article in press as: Sun, S., et al. Sustainability assessment of regional water resources under the DPSIR framework. J. Hydrol. (2015), http://
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 S. Sun et al. / Journal of Hydrology xxx (2015) xxx–xxx 3

acreage in recent years along with rapid urbanization and indus- where aij is governed by the following rules (Gao and Hailu, 2013):
trial expansion has resulted in greater competition between agri-
aij > 0; aij ¼ 1=aji ; aii ¼ 1 ð3Þ
culture and other sectors for water resources. (Bureau of
Statistics in Bayannur, 2010).
Step 3: Derive criteria weights.
2.2. Data The consistency index (CI) is used to determine whether and to
what extent decisions violate the transitivity rule. The CI was cal-
The data used in this study mainly includes meteorological, culated as follows (Saaty, 2006; Feng et al., 2014):
socioeconomic, and water utilization data. Climatic data were
CI ¼ ðkmax  nÞ=ðn  1Þ ð4Þ
obtained from the China Meteorological Data Sharing Services Sys-
tem (http://cdc.cma.gov.cn/home.do) (CMA, 2011). The socioeco- where kmax is the largest eigenvalue of matrix a, n is the order of
nomic data were taken from the ‘‘Inner Mongolia Statistical matrix A, and kmax was calculated as follows (Yu et al., 2011; Feng
Yearbook” and ‘‘China agricultural statistics data” (MAC, 2000- et al., 2014):
2010; NBSC, 2000-2010). The hydrologic data were provided by
the water authority in Bayannur (Water Authority in Bayannur, 1X n
ðAwÞi
kmax ¼ ð5Þ
2010). n i¼1 wi

The weight of an index was calculated using the importance

2.3. Methods
scales in the second and third layers. For this process, the
square-root method was used as follows (Feng et al., 2014; Saaty,
2.3.1. Analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method
2006):
In this study, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is used to
quantify the relative importance of the socioeconomic impacts Y
n

on water resources sustainability. The AHP is an effective method mi ¼ aij ; i ¼ 1; 2; . . . ; n ð6Þ

j¼1
for decision analysis and weighing factors based on multiple crite-
ria to solve complicated problems (Saaty, 2008; Do et al., 2013). p ffiffiffiffiffiffi
The AHP method provides a framework to handle decisions with- wi ¼ n
mi ; i ¼ 1; 2; . . . ; n ð7Þ
out making assumptions about the independence of higher-level ,
elements from lower-level elements or about the independence Xn
wi ¼ wi wk ð8Þ
of the elements within a level (Das and Chakraborty, 2011).
k¼1
The main steps involved in the AHP method are as follows:

Step 1: Determination of an evaluation index system. This step 2.3.2. Logistic curve of water resource utilization level
is to establish an index system and identify the indices. ‘‘m’’ Water shortage is one of the main constraints to regional
indices are assumed to be in the index system. The index sys- socioeconomic development. There is a limit on regional technol-
tem can be expressed as follows (Feng et al., 2014): ogy levels as well as the quantity and quality of water resources.
Thus, water utilization has an upper limit which leads to an
I ¼ fi1 ; i2 ; . . . . . . ; im g ð1Þ increasing damping factor model of regional water resources. The
speed of system development decreased under the limited
The selection of an index should consider the processes of water
resource conditions, and the relative developing speed is a decreas-
resources and the natural characteristics of the study area. Addi-
ing linear function related to the system development state (Zeng
tionally, social, economic and policy factors regarding the subse-
and Gu, 2000). This relationship can be described by the following
quent use of the water resources should also be considered (Feng
logistic curve in which S represents the water resource utilization
et al., 2014). Hence, the second layer of the index system related
level, t is the development and evolution time, and C is the upper
to the social and economic factors was divided into five groups
limit of water resource system utilization. The Logistic curve can
according to their impacts on regional water resources: Driver,
be divided into four stages: (0, t1) initial stage, (t1, t0) growth stage,
Pressure, State, Impact and Response. The third layer of the index
(t0, t2) mature period and (t2, +1) degenerating stage. In stage 1,
system explains the component of the each index in the second
the regional water resource utilization levels are at the initial stage
layer, such as GDP, Per Capita GDP, total population, crop sown
with a slow development speed; in stage 2, they have a faster
area, etc.
development speed; in stage 3, the development level decelerates
relatively but maintains a high development speed; in stage 4, the
Step 2: Construct an evaluation matrix. An n-criteria evaluation
development speed of the system decreases and approaches zero
matrix A in which every element aij (i, j = 1, 2, . . . , n) is the quo-
(Fig. 2). The Logistic-increasing process of the water resource uti-
tient/ratio of the preference values attached to the criteria as
lization level is a combined effect of both promoting and hindering
shown in the following matrix (Gao and Hailu, 2013):
factors in the water resource system. In the initial stage, there is
0 1 only a small impact by the damping factor, and water resource uti-
1 a12    a1i    a1j    a1n
Ba lization levels develop at a fast speed. Over time, there is an
B 21 1    a2i    a2j    a2n C C increase in the scale of water resource utilization, and the room
B C
B .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. C
B . . . . . . . . C for development as well as the water supply decreases. Finally,
B C
B C development of the system was increasingly blocked in the end,
B ai1 ai2  1  aij    ain C
B C and the rate of change approaches zero (Wang, 2000; Feng et al.,
A¼B . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. C ¼ ðaij Þnn ð2Þ
B .. . . . . . . . C 2006).
B C
B C
B aj1 aj2  aji  1    ajn C
B C 2.3.3. Water footprint accounting
B . C
B .
@ . ... ..
. ... ..
.
..
. ... ... C
A Water footprint was selected to reflect the water consumption
and pollution in this study. And it is calculated according to the
an1 an2    ani    anj  1
framework provided by Hoekstra et al. (2011). For the blue water

Please cite this article in press as: Sun, S., et al. Sustainability assessment of regional water resources under the DPSIR framework. J. Hydrol. (2015), http://
dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2015.11.028
4 S. Sun et al. / Journal of Hydrology xxx (2015) xxx–xxx

Fig. 2. The curve of the resource utilization level and its variation rate (revised from Feng et al. (2006)).

footprint, this study used a modified method that takes into (region) is by nature poorer; conversely, a low Engel coefficient
account the water consumption during the water transfer process indicates a higher standard of living.
referred to Sun et al. (2013). The green water footprint of the crop The pressure index reflects the factors which cause changes in
was calculated according to the evapotranspiration of water sup- the water system and act on the water resource system, and it is
plied from the precipitation during the crop growing period. The caused by the influence of the driver. Similarly to the driver
gray water footprint refers to the volume of water that is required indices, pressure indices are external forces which affect the
to assimilate the load of pollutants given natural background con- changes in the water resource system. The difference between
centrations and existing ambient water quality standards, and the them, however, is that driver affects the development of water
calculation process of gray water footprint can refer to Hoekstra resource systems implicitly, whereas pressures act explicitly. This
et al. (2011). study considers the pressures to be the need for water resources
due to social and economic development, and therefore the pres-
sure index refers to the need for water resources and is the index
that impacts water quality. It includes the total water usage, the
3. Results
ratio of the water usage among each sector, the annual average
potential evapotranspiration, and the chemical fertilizer usage
3.1. DPSIR framework in Bayannur
per unit area.
The state index refers to the state of the water system under the
The evaluation framework set up in the city of Bayannur is
pressure of the driver and describes the physical characteristics of
based on the DPSIR model (Fig. 3). The driver index reflects the
the water system. This article considers the index for the state of
effects of changes in society, the economy, population increases,
the water system as the capability of the water system to satisfy
and infrastructure on sustainable water resource development
demand, the quantity of available water resources, the exploitation
and utilization. The driver that affect water resources in this
ratio of the water resources, the average water use per capita, the
research include indices such as GDP, acceleration of GDP, popula-
total irrigation per unit area, the water footprint of agriculture
tion, the Engel Coefficient, and crop sown area. The Engel coeffi-
products, the water consumption per unit of economic output,
cient can be used for a reflection of the living standard of a
and the quantity of wastewater discharge.
country (or region). As the Engel coefficient increases, the country

Fig. 3. Framework of DPSIR in the study area.

Please cite this article in press as: Sun, S., et al. Sustainability assessment of regional water resources under the DPSIR framework. J. Hydrol. (2015), http://
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 S. Sun et al. / Journal of Hydrology xxx (2015) xxx–xxx 5

‘Impact’ refers to the changes in the water system caused by the Table 1
driver and pressure and includes the quality and quantity of water. Principal components of the indicators of each DPSIR sector and their interpretations.a

The impact on the water system due of socioeconomic driver, pres- Indicators Units Weight
sure, and state are indicated by the following index: the available ranking
blue water resources, the blue water footprint, the scarcity level Driver GDP 108 Yuan 1
of the water resource, the discharge of COD (Chemical Oxygen GDP annual rate of change % 2
Demand), the gray water footprint, the pollution level of the water Per capita GDP Yuan/capita 3
Total population Persons 4
resource and the salinity of the groundwater. Crop sown area ha 5
‘Response’ refers to the different measures adopted during the Population change % 6
process of development and utilization of the water resource to Engel coefficient % 7
guarantee higher efficiency and sustainability of local water Pressure Total water use 109 m3 1
resources system. The response measures in this article include Potential evapotranspiration mm 2
the following: investment in water conservation projects, increas- Agriculture water usage ratio % 3
Chemical fertilizer use per unit area kg/ha 4
ing the irrigation water use efficiency and the wastewater process-
Per capita grain occupancy kg/capita 5
ing ratio, decreasing range of water consumption per ten thousand Industrial water use ratio % 6
GDP, decreasing range of the comprehensive crop water footprint, Domestic water usage ratio % 7
the increasing range of the ecological water utilization and forest State Total water resources 109 m3 1
coverage rate. Exploitation ratio of the water % 2
resources
3.2. Weight of the indicators in the DPSIR framework Per capita water use m3/capita 3
Precipitation mm 4
Quantity of wastewater discharge ton 5
When analytically processed, the weight of each driver index Water footprint of the crop m3/kg 6
results in the following hierarchy (Table 1): GDP, the annual Irrigation water usage per unit area m3/ha 6
increasing rate of GDP, GDP per capita, and so forth. This indicates Water usage per unit of economic m3/ 7
output (104 Yuan)
that the main drivers causing changes to the water system are
regional economic development (represented by GDP and its Impact Scarcity level of water resource % 1
Quantity of available blue water 109 m3 2
increasing level), crop sown area, and changes in consumption
Blue water footprint 109 m3 3
demands. Pollution level of water resource % 4
The weight ranking of the pressure index shows that the main Gray water footprint 109 m3 5
pressure on the water system is the large overall water usage, Degree of mineralization of g/L 6
the need for water by crops and the usage of chemical fertilizers. groundwater
Effluent of COD t 7
The weight ranking of the state indicators shows that the main
indicator for the state of a regional water system is the quantity Response Ratio of water conservation % 1
investment to GDP
of regional water resources, the exploitation rate of water
Change in comprehensive crop water % 2
resources, the water footprint of crops and the quantity of wastew- footprint
ater discharge. For the impact index, the scarcity of the water Irrigation water use efficiency % 3
resources, the quantity of available blue water, and the pollutant Change in water consumption per ten % 4
thousand Yuan of GDP
levels in the water resources are the main indicators reflecting
Wastewater treatment ratio % 5
the effects that socioeconomic development has on local water Change in ecological water utilization % 6
resources. Forest coverage rate % 7
The weight ranking of the response indicators is as follows: the
Note: The factor loadings with higher ranking indicate stronger correlations of the
ratio of water conservation investment to GDP, the decline in the components with the associated variables.
comprehensive crop water footprint, the irrigation water use effi- a
Source: China Meteorological Data-Sharing Service System, Inner Mongolia
ciency, and so forth. Therefore, to face the increasing pressure with Statistical Yearbook, Water Resources Bulletin in Bayannur.
a decrease in the state of water resources, the main local response
was to improve the water efficiency in industry and agriculture
and to increase the ratio of wastewater treatment.
The state of water resources in the research area indicates a
3.3. Sustainability assessment of the water resource system in decreasing trend under the driver and increasing pressure on water
Bayannur resources with a state of 0.71 in 2000 and 0.36 in 2010 (Fig. 4).
Social and economic development demands an increasing water
The quantification and analysis of the 5 comprehensive indexes supply, and increasing living standards lead to a higher per-
in the DPSIR are based on the weight of each indicator, which capita water use. Simultaneously, the state of the local water
includes the annual change during the research period. The driver resource system exhibited a decrease due to the increase in
index of water use in the research area increased overall because of wastewater discharge from both industrial and residential sources.
an expansion in agricultural and industrial production, an increase For example, the local wastewater effluent increased from 282,600
in living standards of the residents, and an increase in the area of thousand tons in 2000 to 814,500 thousand tons in 2010 with a
cultivated land. This indicates an increase in driver for the local rate of increase of 188.22%.
water consumption because of social and economic development Driver and pressure have a significant influence on water
and a change in residential consumption. The pressure on local resource systems. The impact indicators of the water system
water systems increased during the study period because of the increased overall during the study period. Among these indicators,
increase in the driver indicators. The local water resource system the regional blue water footprint, which reflects regional water
faced pressure from both demand and water pollution due to the consumption, increased. In addition to the increasing regional
increasing water use in agriculture and industry in addition to water use, social and economic development had a significant
the increasing application of chemical fertilizers and pesticides influence on the environmentally sustainable development of the
during agricultural production (Fig. 4). water system. For example, the COD effluent increased from

Please cite this article in press as: Sun, S., et al. Sustainability assessment of regional water resources under the DPSIR framework. J. Hydrol. (2015), http://
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6 S. Sun et al. / Journal of Hydrology xxx (2015) xxx–xxx

Fig. 4. Interannual variation of the DPSIR index (a) interannual variation of driver index; (b) interannual variation of pressure index; (c) interannual variation of state index;
(d) interannual variation of impact index; (e) interannual variation of response index; (f) interannual variation of comprehensive index.

42,368 tons in 2000 to 52,300 tons in 2010 (a rate of 23.44%), and environment by the increasing pollutant effluent from industry
the gray water footprint increased from 3.06  109 m3 in 2000 to and agriculture, which led to the decrease in regional water
4.10  109 m3 in 2010. resource system sustainability.
To face the driver of increasing demands on water resources
because of social and economic development, local residents have 4. Discussion
adopted a series of measures to respond to and alleviate the
increasing pressure on water resources (and the decreasing state Social and economic conditions combined with the environ-
of the water system). The measures include increases in water con- ment and water systems to form a regional socioeconomic-
servation investments, improving water use efficiency in produc- environmental water system. The subsystems act and interact
tion and the ratio of wastewater treatment, and so forth. The independently with each other to form an organic whole. Loucks
local response indicator increased overall because of these mea- (1997) proposed the definition of a Sustainable Water Resource
sures with 0.21 in 2000 and 0.79 in 2010 (Fig. 4). System (SWRS) in 1997 and indicated that a sustainable water
There is an overall decrease in regional water resource system resource system should not only maintain the environmental sub-
sustainability because of the influence of indicators along with dri- systems but also satisfy the needs of the social and economic con-
ver, pressure, state, and response. Although the response measures ditions. A sustainable regional water resource system should pay
improved the water use efficiency during the regional industrial attention to the sustainability of water resources, society, the econ-
and agricultural production process, the scale expansion brought omy, and the environment (Feng et al., 2006). Sustainable water
an increase in resource consumption. At the same time, great resource systems are complex, inter-coupled systems centered
pressure was brought to the regional water resource system arounds water resources and connecting the social, economic,

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 S. Sun et al. / Journal of Hydrology xxx (2015) xxx–xxx 7

and environmental subsystems together. These subsystems inter- the driver in population growth, increase in GDP, increase in crop
act and will continue to develop and evolve over time (Fig. 5). This sown area, and so forth. Pressure on the water system increased
is achieved through water conservation projects and technological because of the increase in the driver factors. Increased pressure
measures for water resource exploitation, utilization, projection, on water resource systems leads to a decrease in the sustainable
and reasonable allocation and control. The ecological environment state of the water resource system, therefore affecting the sus-
is the platform for the whole system and provides the physical tainability of the social, economic, and ecological environment
basis for water circulation and human activity (Feng et al., 2006). systems related to the water resource system. To protect the sus-
On the contrary, a deterioration of the environmental system tainability of the regional water resource system, the government
would degenerate the water resources system, thus blocking fur- can adjust medium-term and short-term factors through a series
ther social and economic development. The social and economic of response measures. From the perspective of economy, the mea-
systems are the most active factors in the water resource system, sures include changing the regional economic development struc-
and they will have impacts on environment and water resource ture, reducing the industrial scale involved in high water
system (Feng et al., 2006; Fitzhugh and Richter, 2004). consumption and high pollution, and rising green taxes for the
The development of open systems is affected by both internal high water consumption industries. From the perspective of cul-
and external factors, which include promotion factors as well as ture, measures include forming a water-saving dietary pattern,
hindering factors. Time periods can be used to decide the level of and implementing educational programs for water conservation
difficulty of changing a condition based on how long the increase in schools. From the perspective of technology, measures include
occurred in the corresponding Logistic (Wang, 2000). The develop- improving water usage efficiency in industry and agriculture, and
ment condition can be divided into long-, medium- and short-term increasing the ratio of wastewater treatment (Perry et al., 2009;
based on the time period. Based on the dominant theory from syn- Sjah and Baldwin, 2014).
ergetic theory, long-term factors dominate short-term factors, and Although the response measures improved the water use effi-
short-term factors can only adapt to long-term factors. The cli- ciency during the regional industrial and agricultural production
matic condition, water system structure, and geological structure process, the scale expansion brought an increase in resource con-
in the region are long-term factors in the regional water resource sumption. At times, the consumption even increased (rather than
system; cultures, traditions, values, behaviors, and population decreased) as a result of the efficiency increase. This specific case
structures are medium-term factors; and the economic structure, of the rebound effect is known as the ‘‘Jevons paradox” (Alcott,
technology structure, and water resource utilization methods are 2005; Peet, 2009). Some studies have also indicated that to miti-
short-term factors. It is difficult to change long-term factors, which gate water scarcity, water use efficiency increases are an essential
inhibit the structure and function of regional water resource sys- but insufficient ingredient. According to the related research, the
tem. Humans can only realize the sustainable regional water efficiency gains in water use will not be sufficient to offset the
resource utilization and development through adjusting medium- effects of the expansion in production scale (Perry et al., 2009;
term factors (cultural traditions, behaviors, and so forth) and Hoekstra, 2013). The results of this study showed that the
short-term factors (regional economic pattern, water resource uti- improvements in water use efficiency are not used to save water
lization technology, and so forth). but to increase production scale. Therefore, the improvement of
The specific causal relationship in the DPSIR model provides a water use efficiency is a means to achieve a more sustainable use
feasible method for quantitatively evaluating water resource sus- of water resources, but it also needs to be coupled with measures
tainability levels, which can be used not only to find the critical that constrain the continued growth of demand (Hoekstra, 2013;
factors that affect the sustainable utilization of water resources Sun et al., 2015).
but also to shape the discussion around future strategies for uti- The present study provides an effective approach for analyzing
lization improvements (Juwana et al., 2010; Cao et al., 2012). This water resource system problems and their interrelationships with
study analyzed the driver, pressure, state, impact, and response the socioeconomic system. Nevertheless, there are some limita-
factors that influence the sustainability of the water resource sys- tions present in this study. The incompleteness and bias of the
tem in the city of Bayannur from 2000 to 2010 using the DPSIR indicators selected, data unavailability, and data uncertainty will
framework based on the internal correlation among water cause uncertainty of the results of the study. For instance, the pre-
resources and socioeconomic. It can be seen from the results that sent study uses the exploitation rate of water resources, which has
potential influence will be brought to water resources because of the same meaning with water exploitation index (WEI), to reflect
the effect of social and economic activity exerts on water
resources. Traditionally the WEI has been defined as the annual
total water abstraction as a percentage of available long-term
freshwater resources. It has been calculated mainly on a national
basis. Faergemann indicated that water exploitation index plus
(WEI+) provides an indication of the pressure on the water
resources of a certain territory as a consequence of water with-
drawals, and WEI+ aims mainly at redefining the actual water
exploitation, since it incorporates returns from water uses and
effective management, tackling as well issues of temporal and spa-
tial scaling. Hence, the WEI+ could be used as an index for the
assessment of the regional water resources exploitation state
(EEA, 2012). Additionally, there may be some temporal hysteresis
effect between DPSIR sectors (Nelson et al., 2005; Hou et al.,
2014). For instance, changes in a certain sector (e.g. State or
Impact) are caused by other sectors (e.g. Driver or Pressure) that
work over a certain amount of time. Therefore, further studies rel-
ative to temporal hysteresis effect between DPSIR sectors are
Fig. 5. Interaction and relationship of subsystems of water resource system required in order to obtain a more appropriate assessment of the
(revised from Du et al. (2013)). interaction between DPSIR sectors.

Please cite this article in press as: Sun, S., et al. Sustainability assessment of regional water resources under the DPSIR framework. J. Hydrol. (2015), http://
dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2015.11.028
8 S. Sun et al. / Journal of Hydrology xxx (2015) xxx–xxx

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Please cite this article in press as: Sun, S., et al. Sustainability assessment of regional water resources under the DPSIR framework. J. Hydrol. (2015), http://
dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jhydrol.2015.11.028