Dynamic simulation of urban water metabolism under water environmental carrying capacity restrictions

Abstract

A revised concept for urban water metabolism (UWM) is presented in this study to address the inadequacies in current research on UWM and the problems associated with the traditional urban water metabolic process. Feedback loops can be analyzed to increase the water environmental carrying capacity (WECC) of the new urban water metabolism system (UWMS) over that of a traditional UWMS. An analysis of the feedback loops of an UWMS was used to construct a system dynamics (SD) model for the system under a WECC restriction. Water metabolic processes were simulated for different scenarios using the Tongzhou District in Beijing as an example. The results for the newly developed UWM case showed that a water environment of Tongzhou District could support a population of 1.1926 × 10⁶, an irrigation area of 375.521 km², a livestock of 0.7732 × 10⁶, and an industrial value added of ¥193.14 × 10⁹ (i.e. about US$28.285× 10⁹) in 2020. A sensitivity analysis showed that the WECC could be improved to some extent by constructing new sewage treatment facilities or by expanding the current sewage treatment facilities, using reclaimed water and improving the water circulation system.

Keywords

urban water metabolism system (UWMS) / system dynamic simulation / water environmental carrying capacity (WECC) / feedback loops / bilateral control

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