Analysis of sustainable utilization of water resources in karst region based on the ecological footprint model – Liupanshui city case

The demand of human beings for water resources is growing strongly, causing more and more shortages of water resources. In this paper, focusing on Liupanshui city, a typical karst area, the ecological footprint and ecological carrying capacity models of water resources were established in Liupanshui city from the perspectives of the water consumption account of living, production, and ecology based on the ecological footprint theory, to estimate the ecological footprint of water resources and the ecological carrying capacity. On this basis, a variety of evaluation indicators was utilized to analyze the sustainable utilization of water resources in Liupanshui city. The results showed that water resources in this area belong to ecological surplus, while the utilization of water resources has been in a sustainable state as a whole. However, there have been great variations in the carrying capacity of water resources over different years. At the same time, the ecological water consumption and the footprint of 10,000 yuan GDP water resources are at low levels, indicating that the current water consumption ratio is not conducive to the improvement of the ecological environment. Moreover, further improvements in the efficiency of water consumption are needed.