Abstract

Urban centers increasingly have difficulties meeting water needs within their hydrologic basins. The resulting flows among cities and water source regions lead to telecouplings (socioeconomic and environmental interactions over distances). To analyse these interactions, we apply the emerging telecoupling framework to the following telecouplings in the water-stressed megacity of Beijing: 1) interbasin water transfers; 2) virtual water imports; and 3) payments for ecosystem services to upstream regions to increase water quantity and quality. Through literature review and synthesis, we find that these telecouplings have lower overall risk than Beijing’s local supply, but connections affect remote sending systems. Virtual water imports contribute over half of Beijing’s water footprint, and anticipated interbasin water transfers will increase 2020 physical water availability by 43% compared to the 2001-2011 mean. Payments for ecosystem services improved water quality and were extremely cost effective, but they contributed minimally to water quantity. The telecoupling framework provides a standard, systematic, and flexible tool for evaluating the sustainability of urban water supply. It also identifies a number of research gaps for future quantification efforts.