Spatiotemporal evolution of sustainable utilization of water resources in Xinjiang based on the ecological footprint model

The sustainable development and utilization of water resources serve as a critical measure to alleviate the imbalance between water supply and demand in arid and semi-arid regions, and to promote the coordinated development among water resources, regional society, economy, and ecological environment. Against this backdrop, the scientific quantitative assessment of the sustainability of regional water resource utilization has become one of the core issues. Based on the ecological footprint theory and methodology, this study takes Xinjiang as the study area and systematically explores the spatiotemporal evolution patterns and characteristics of sustainable water resource utilization in the region from 2014 to 2022. The results show that: 1) During the study period, the water resource ecological footprint of Xinjiang exhibited an overall fluctuating downward trend, decreasing from 96.1654 million ha in 2014 to 92.9233 million ha in 2022, with the fluctuating reduction in the agricultural water footprint being the primary contributing factor. 2) The water resource ecological carrying capacity showed a mild fluctuating downward trend overall, which is primarily driven by factors such as the uneven spatiotemporal distribution of water resources, the "warming and wetting" climatic change in arid areas of Northwest China, and policy regulation. 3) The temporal and spatial differences in the sustainability of water resource utilization in Xinjiang are quite significant, a phenomenon mainly attributed to the spatiotemporal heterogeneity of water resource endowment and the rapid socio-economic development, which has led to increasing water demand across various industries. This study clarifies the spatiotemporal evolution patterns and distribution characteristics of the sustainable utilization of water resources in Xinjiang, thereby providing a scientific basis and decision-making support for the high-quality coordinated development of regional water resources, social economy, and ecological environment.