Wu et al. (2026) A tightly coupled socio-hydrological model with feedback pathways for water availability assessment: A case study of the Weihe River Basin

Identification

• Journal: Environmental Modelling & Software
• Year: 2026
• Date: 2026-06-22
• Authors: Mengqi Wu, Pan Liu, Qian Cheng, Luguang Liu, Fengyan Wu, Jing Wang, Kaijie Zou, Qian Xia, Hao Wang
• DOI: 10.1016/j.envsoft.2026.107093

Research Groups

• Hubei Water Saving Research Center (Hubei Water Resources Research Institute), Wuhan, China
• State Key Laboratory of Water Resources Engineering and Management, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China
• State Key Laboratory of Simulation and Regulation of Water Cycles in River Basins, China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing, China

Short Summary

This study presents a novel socio-hydrological model that simulates dynamic feedbacks between socio-economic and water resources systems. The model was applied to the Weihe River Basin in China, revealing that industrial production is more sensitive to changes in water resources than population and irrigation.

Objective

• Investigate the interactions between socio-economic and water resources subsystems under climate change and intense human activities

Study Configuration

• Spatial Scale: Watershed-scale analysis of the Weihe River Basin in China
• Temporal Scale: Long-term simulation (e.g., 30 years) with a focus on future water availability assessment

Methodology and Data

• Models used: Coupled distributed hydrological model (e.g., SWAT, VIC) and system dynamics model
• Data sources: Satellite data, observation data, reanalysis data for hydrological variables; socio-economic data from government reports and surveys

Main Results

• The coupled model achieved an NSE of 0.9 for streamflow during the validation period
• Industrial production is more sensitive to changes in water resources than population and irrigation
• Future water availability can be overestimated (up to 3%) if neglecting the influence of socio-economic development on water resources; while ignoring the impact of water resources on socio-economic development can lead to an underestimation of water availability by 7.8%

Contributions

• The study provides a novel approach for simulating dynamic feedbacks between socio-economic and water resources systems, offering insights into system coevolution under climate change and socioeconomic development

Funding

• This research was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 52179203) and the Hubei Provincial Key Research and Development Program (Grant No. 2022BAA010).

Citation

@article{Wu2026tightly,
  author = {Wu, Mengqi and Liu, Pan and Cheng, Qian and Liu, Luguang and Wu, Fengyan and Wang, Jing and Zou, Kaijie and Xia, Qian and Wang, Hao},
  title = {A tightly coupled socio-hydrological model with feedback pathways for water availability assessment: A case study of the Weihe River Basin},
  journal = {Environmental Modelling & Software},
  year = {2026},
  doi = {10.1016/j.envsoft.2026.107093},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envsoft.2026.107093}
}