Water Resources Assessment and Regional Virtual Water Potential in the Turpan Basin, China

Located in the centre of the Eurasian Continent, the Turpan Basin, as the second deepest lowland in the world, is extremely short of water resources. Aimed at this key scientific issue, this paper based on years of meteorological and hydrological observation data, carried out a scientific calculation and evaluation of surface and groundwater resources in the Turpan Basin, and then, with the help of modified Penman formula, calculated the virtual water potential in the basin in 2004. The results show that the average total usable surface water resources per year in the last decade were about 6.673×10⁸ m³, while adduction volume of surface water in 2003 was about 4.94×10⁸ m³, which means that most of the region has reached or approached the limit of water resources and, as a result serious crises and constraints on the development of the basin were thus caused. The exploitation content of groundwater in the Turpan Basin in 2003 was about 6.12×10⁸ m³, which has basically reached its upper limit, and the ground water level has fallen about 10~40 m in the Turpan Basin in recent years. The daily reference crop water requirement in the Turpan Basin in 2004 was about 1,053.39 mm, and the total virtual water potential contained in six main crops was about 5.25 ×10⁸ m³ in 2004. All these showed that research works on scientific assessment of water resources and regional virtual water strategy have great significance for the best social, ecological, economic benefits and regional sustainable development of the Turpan Basin.