Water resources carrying capacity from perspective of virtual water

To study the sustainable development capacity of water resources in North China,the virtual water is introduced to be the evaluation index of its water resources carrying capacity,and the applicability of the virtual water strategy as well as its relationship with the water resources carrying capacity is discussed.The principal component analysis is adopted to comprehensively evaluate the water resources carrying capacity in North China by taking 13 factors as the evaluation indices of the water resources carrying capacity,such as the total water resources,total supply and annual precipitation amount.The results show that the main driving factors to affect the water resources carrying capacity are economy,population,water resources and net flow of the virtual water.The water resources carrying capacity in North China is in a trend of fluctuation and increase.The virtual water is an important factor to affect the water resources carrying capacity,but the introduction of the virtual water will not change the overall change trend of the water resources carrying capacity.