The Considerable Water Evaporation Induced by Human Perspiration and Respiration in Megacities: Quantifying Method and Case Study in Beijing

Abstract

The water cycle in urban areas is called the natural-social dualistic water cycle, and it is driven not only by natural forces, but also by human activities. As the drivers of the social water cycle, human perspire continuously, and this is often overlooked as a contributing factor to the water cycle. This paper proposes a method for quantifying the water evaporation induced by human perspiration and respiration in megacities. A calculation based on the sweating prediction model was applied to the city of Beijing to evaluate the evaporation from the human body. The results show that the greatest volume of evaporation produced by human occurs in summer, and the least in spring. The total evaporation produced by human was converted to the evaporation on unit area of the city and reached 5075.2 m3/km2 in the six core districts of Beijing. According to the calculation, the total volume was considerable and reached 14.0 million m3 in 2020, which was equivalent to the annual evapotranspiration from an area of 104.9 km2 of Acer truncatum forest (15 cm diameter at breast height, afforestation density 800 plants/hm2), and even twice the annual total water use in Tartu, Estonia. The results of the study provide a reference for dualistic water cycle research and water cycle flux calculation in urban areas.