The Cognitive Framework of the Interaction between the Physical and Virtual Water and the Strategies for Sustainable Coupling Management

Abstract

In the context of a changing environment and economic globalization, the evolution of regional hydrology and water resources systems has undergone profound changes. It is not enough to rely on traditional physical water resources planning, scheduling, and regulation methods to solve problems such as water shortages and imbalances in the water cycle associated with rapid economic development. The theory of virtual water expands the cognitive scope of hydrology and water resources and enriches the solutions to water problems. However, the academic community has not yet reached a consensus on how to build a unified framework of the virtual water theory and traditional hydrology and water resources recognition system, how to understand the new laws of water resources evolution in the natural–economic continuous system, and then how to realize efficient and sustainable usage of water resources through physical water–virtual water integrated management. This paper proposes a basic cognitive model of coupling of physical water–virtual water and discusses the evolution of hydrology and water resources in a natural–economic system, presenting the laws of the coupled flow of physical water–virtual water in natural systems and human economic systems. A quantitative expression equation is proposed for the flow process, and a basic theoretical framework for the coupled flow of physical water–virtual water is preliminarily constructed. At the end of the paper, the basic strategy for the regulation of a physical water–virtual water integrated management system is proposed, which provides a new perspective for the efficient and sustainable use of global water resources in a changing environment.