Evaluation and obstacle factors study of water environmental carrying capacity in the Pearl River Delta

To comprehensively understand the development of water environmental carrying capacity in the Pearl River Delta and better promote the construction of ecological civilization, 19 indicators were selected to construct an evaluation index system from the three subsystems of economy, water environment and water resources. Entropy weighting method and obstacle degree model were used to evaluate and analyze the carrying capacity and obstacle factors of nine cities in the Pearl River Delta in 2015. The results showed that the average evaluation index of water environmental carrying capacity was 0.507, and the overall performance was moderate, but the regional differences were significant: Shenzhen, Zhuhai and Guangzhou had the best performance, and Foshan, Dongguan and Jiangmen had relatively low level of carrying capacity. From the analysis of obstacle degree, the freshwater resource per capita was the dominant obstacle factor affecting the water environmental carrying capacity with an obstacle degree of 9.9%, and there were also spatial differences in the obstacle degree of each subsystem in the region. Based on the characteristics of economic development in the Pearl River Delta, corresponding suggestions for improving its water environmental carrying capacity were put forward.