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Journal of Environmental Accounting and Management
António Mendes Lopes (editor), Jiazhong Zhang(editor)
António Mendes Lopes (editor)

University of Porto, Portugal

Email: aml@fe.up.pt

Jiazhong Zhang (editor)

School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province 710049, China

Fax: +86 29 82668723 Email: jzzhang@mail.xjtu.edu.cn


Evaluating the Revised Water Use Network Model based on Ecological Network Analysis with the Consideration of Environmental Flow

Journal of Environmental Accounting and Management 5(3) (2017) 255--271 | DOI:10.5890/JEAM.2017.09.007

Yuan Li$^{1}$,$^{2}$, Yuebin Wang$^{1}$,$^{2}$, Changqing Lin$^{1}$,$^{2}$, Xiaoping Gao$^{3}$, Reti Hai$^{1}$,$^{2}$, Xiaohui Wang$^{1}$,$^{2}$

$^{1}$ Beijing University of Chemical Technology, Beijing 100029, China

$^{2}$ Beijing Engineering Research Center of Environmental Material for Water Purification, Beijing 100029, China

$^{3}$ Fuzhou Planning Design Research Institute, Fuzhou 350108, China

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Abstract

Ecological Network Analysis (ENA) is introduced in this paper as a promising approach to study water use systems. A virtual node termed as environment and its virtual pathway flows are constructed to revise water use network model for involving environmental flow in sustainability measure using network structure indicators. To examine revised network model, the results of ENA based on the revised and the unrevised water use network models are compared. Network structure indicators from ENA involving ascendency and Finn Cycling Index (FCI) are calculated here. The Huaihe River Basin in China during 2010 to 2014, which is divided into four sub-basins, is chosen as the case study . In addition, the variation of ascendency due to network model modification is discussed through scenario analysis. Furthermore, the implications of ascendency and FCI in evaluating the importance of environmental flow function from the perspectives of network organization are discussed.

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