Desalination and Water Treatment 168 (2019) 394–404 www.deswater.com November doi: 10.5004/dwt.2019.24214 Regionalization of cryosphere water resource service Haoxi Lina,b,c, Jinchuan Huangb,c,*, Chuanglin Fangb,c, Jie Liub,c, Xiaoxiao Qib, Yunqian Chend aGuangzhou Institute of Geography, Guangdong Open Laboratory of Geospatial Information Technology and Application, Guangzhou 510070, China bInstitute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China, email:
[email protected] (J.C. Huang) cCollege of Resources and Environment, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China dBeijing National Day School, Beijing 100039, China Received 22 October 2018; Accepted 21 January 2019 abstract The cryosphere water resource service (CWRS) is the most significant cryosphere service (CS) to directly affect human societies. Regionalization of CWRS is an important prototype for the comprehensive regionalization of CSs. It is also a crucial cutting-edge exploration of interdisciplinary work across cryospheric science, physical geography and human geography. We constructed a quan- titative indexing system for the regionalization of CWRS along the dimensions of base–supply– demand informed by the characteristics of cryosphere resources and human use of CSs. Different levels of regionalization are subdivided using cluster analysis, the importance index of CWRS, and a location entropy model. A region in Northwest China with significant CWRS use was the study area. From the joint effects of nature and human activity, there emerge principles of regional differentia- tion that govern the regionalization of CWRS. The study area was first divided into three high level service regions according to the availability of stored cryosphere water in snow cover, frozen ground and glaciers, indicating the regulatory function of cryosphere components.