Agrifood Research Reports 68, P. 149-158
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Agrifood Research Reports 68, p. 149-158. An Informatics Tool for Water Resources Management in Shanghai City Tao Tao1), Li Shuping1), Liu Suiqing1) and Fu Xiang2) 1)State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, Tongji University, 1239 Siping Road, Shanghai City 200092, China, [email protected] 2)School of Water Resource and Hydropower, Wuhan University, Wuhan City 430072, China Abstract The main subject of this paper is the water resources management informat- ics tool in use in Shanghai. Information-based capability is an important indi- cator of national strength, international competitiveness and degree of mod- ernization. Information has become a strong new motive for the development of social productivity and progress in human civilization. Water information provides us with the technological foundation for transforming traditional water management practices into a modern system adhering to the principles of sustainable development. It is also an effective means for promoting the scientific management and working efficiency of water resources. This paper describes the data information management system used for urban water resources in Shanghai. Data management is at the core of an integrated water information management system. “Water resources (surface water and groundwater)-Environment-Social-Economic” constitute a complex system with many sub-systems that affect and depend on each other. Thus the vol- ume of data in water resource information is very large, and the structure of the key elements and their relationship to each other are complicated, with more than 80% of the information relating to the geographical position of space distribution. Seeing that a lot of countries in the world use the ad- vanced technology of geographical information systems (GIS), making for an enormous comprehensive benefit in managing water resources, we drafted a GIS platform, set up a data information system for urban water resources comprising a water resources development and management database, a wa- ter environmental management database, and an economic development and social development database. Key words: information tool, water resource, GIS, Shanghai 149 ______________________ MTT Agrifood Research Finland Agrifood Research Reports 68, p. 149-158. Introduction Shanghai lies at 31o14' north latitude and 121o29' east longitude. Bordering Jiangsu and Zhejiang Provinces in the west, it is located on the coast of the East China Sea in the east and Hang Zhou Bay in the south. The city has a central location on China's coastal line. With its many rivers and lakes, the Shanghai area is rich in water resources, the water area accounting for 11% of its total territory. The surface water network of the region is composed of the Yangtze River, Dianshan Lake, the Huangpu River and Suzhou Creek. North of the city, the Yangtze River drains into the East China Sea, providing a route for transportation, and water for drinking, and industrial and envi- ronmental use. Water quality is highest in Dianshan Lake, which is the source of the Huangpu River. This river is the largest to run through metropolitan Shanghai. The main waterway in the area, the 113-kilometre-long river winds through downtown Shanghai. The upper catchment of the Huangpu provides water for drinking and industrial use, whilst the lower part is mainly for transportation. Suzhou Creek is the largest tributary of the Huangpu River, and is one of the main waterways connecting Taihu Lake and the Huangpu River. Of its total length of 125 km, 53.1 km is within Shanghai territory and 23.8 km within metropolitan Shanghai. Suzhou Creek is used mainly for transportation. Information-based capability is an important indicator of national strength, international competitiveness and degree of modernization. Information has become a strong new motive for the development of social productivity and progress in human civilization. Water information provides us with the tech- nological foundation for transforming traditional water management practices into a modern system adhering to the principles of sustainable development. It also provides an effective means for promoting the scientific management and working efficiency of water resources. Data management is at the core of a comprehensive water information management system. “Water resources (surface water and groundwater)-Environment-Social-Economic” constitute a complex system with many sub-systems that affect and depend on each other. Thus the volume of water resource information is very large, and the struc- ture of the key elements and their relationship to each other are complicated, with more than 80% of the information relating to the geographical position of space distribution. This paper describes the application of an information tool in Shanghai water resource management. This tool, based on a GIS platform, includes the data information system of an urban water resource and modelling system and comprises a water resources development and management database, a water environmental management database, and an economic and social develop- ment database. The main functions of the information tool are query and sta- tistics: we can query water resources data, such as water demand, water price, 150 Agrifood Research Reports 68, p. 149-158. etc., and on the basis of the data, we can compile statistics. Other functions are management area information, database management, real time monitor- ing, water yield predictions, flood predictions, water utilization calculations, water supply and demand balances, optimized water supply decisions, and online help. Material and methods Water resource GIS in Shanghai (WRG Shanghai) The geographical information system (GIS) is a new cross-disciplinary tool in information science, space science and the geosciences; it is a special- purpose geographical space information processing and technological system of computer management. GIS is an information system for collecting, stor- ing, analysing and reproducing space information effectively. It utilizes not only attribute data but also space data, and models and stores the geographi- cal space information in computers in order to analyse the geographical in- formation, and to describe, simulate and predict the research object. Hydro- logical research and water resource management are mainly related to the space of every hydrological element. GIS is good at managing space informa- tion and analysis, and is making rapid progress in this field. Since the 1970s, the basin administration bureau of Tennessee, U.S.A., has used GIS to ana- lyse basin data, and to offer decision support for basin management and planning. With the rapid development of computer technology in the 1980s, hydrology and water resources management in GIS have also made rapid progress. In the U.S.A. the American Congress on Survey and Mapping (ACSM ) and the 1986 annual meeting of the American Society for Photo- grammetry and Remote Sensing (ASPRS) discussed applications of GIS in hydrology and water resources management to find a practical system and apply research results; the International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS) held an international conference on the application of GIS in hydrol- ogy and water resources management in Vienna, Austria, in April 1993, and has published a collection of papers. In July 1995, a meeting discussing water resource system and management models was held at the University of Colo- rado, U.S.A. One of the issues on the agenda was the application of GIS. These meetings offer practical GIS for research and decision-making. Thus we see that the application of GIS in hydrology and water resource manage- ment is becoming increasingly of extensive (Alfredsen & Sæther 1997; Zhou et al 1998; Miles & Ho 2001; McKinney & Cai, 2002). WRG Shanghai provides a wide range of information on the population, area and water demand (both industrial and domestic) of different administrative areas. Because the Shanghai area is known for its rich water resources, ripar- ian information, including basic information on the river as well as on its length and width, is a key element of the Shanghai informatics tool. 151 Agrifood Research Reports 68, p. 149-158. Data management The main function or content of GIS and an informatics tool is data manage- ment. In this tool, the data include both historical and current data. We di- vided the current data into five groups: key consumption, demand sites, sup- ply and resources, water environment, and groundwater (Fig. 1). The water environment database includes many tables on issues such as the water quality of the Huangpu River 1994, 1998 and 2000 (5-9), Suzhou Creek wastewater and pollution, Wastewater Statistics, Yangshupu Gang pollution statistics, etc. Key consumption GDP Population Area Water price Demand sites Municipal Industrial Agriculture Environment Supply and resources Surface water flow amount Water area, river and lake area Basic river data Water environment Wastewater discharge Pollution discharge River quality Groundwater Groundwater exploitation Groundwater quality Fig. 1. Current data management The supply and resources database includes basic river data, the number and discharge of rivers, river sedimentation, surface water flow, water, river and lake area, flood-control wall, rainfall, etc. The historical data (Fig. 2) include gross domestic product, total population of households and density of popula- tion (Table1), water price, water supply and water demand, waste water