Hydrology Research (May 2022)

Evolution of water resource allocation in the river basin between administrators and managers

  • Zuliang Lu,
  • Fei Cai,
  • Jinkui Liu,
  • Jiayuan Yang,
  • Shuhua Zhang,
  • Shuang Wu

DOI
https://doi.org/10.2166/nh.2022.128
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 53, no. 5
pp. 716 – 732

Abstract

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The reasonable allocation of water resources runs through the main links of regional water resource planning and management, which is a complex decision-making issue, ensures the sustainable development and utilization of water resources, and makes a greater contribution to the sustainable development of social economy. In this paper, evolutionary game theory is applied to the allocation of watershed water resources in a river basin. Also, the analysis of the replication dynamics and evolutionary stability strategies of water resource allocation among water resource manufacturers was done. It was found that the evolutionary game among the water resource manufacturers has only an evolutionary stability strategy. Considering the evolutionary game between water resource managers and water resource manufacturers, the evolutionary stability strategy is analyzed. This study suggests that there are two evolutionary stability strategies ( normal water intake, high level of regulation) and ( excess water intake, low level of regulation) between the water resource manufacturers and the administrative water resource regulators, where the strategy ( normal water intake, high level of regulation) is the expected direction. The evolution factors of the strategy ( normal water intake, high level of regulation) were analyzed. Furthermore, it also suggested that an effective reward and punishment mechanism will help to draw up excessive water, dismantle the conflicts between the water resource manufacturers and the administrative water resource regulators, and increase the benefits of both sides. HIGHLIGHTS The evolutionary game theory is applied to the problem of water resource allocation.; The strategy choice of game subjects is analyzed, and the effective reward and punishment mechanism is introduced to solve the conflict between game subjects and increase the interests of both sides.;

Keywords