A Socio-Hydrological Unit Division and Confluence Relationship Generation Method for Human–Water Systems

Abstract

Studies on human activities and the natural water cycle as a coupled system are essential for effective water resource management in river basins. However, existing calculation methods based solely on the natural water cycle do not meet the accuracy requirements of natural society dualistic water cycle simulations. Therefore, it is necessary to establish a more scientific and reasonable calculation unit division method and river confluence relationship determination method. This paper presents a socio-hydrological unit with natural society dual characteristics based on both the hydrological characteristics and the social administrative characteristics of the river basin. According to the elevation of the river buffer zone, river confluence relationships among socio-hydrological units are determined, and upstream and downstream confluence of the human–water system is obtained. Finally, a case study of the Jing-Jin-Ji region in China, an area of intensive human activities, was performed. A reliability of 94.3% was reached using the proposed socio-hydrological unit division and river confluence calculation method, suggesting that the approach is highly applicable. Thus, the proposed method for generating socio-hydrological units and determining river confluence relationships can be applied to study the mutual influence and spatial distribution characteristics of natural society dualistic water cycles. The data requirement is minimal, and the approach can provide benefits in research on human water systems.