Conceptualization and measurement of water inclusive sustainability of China's cities in Yangtze River Economic Belt

Water system is a crucial lifeline system for sustainable cities. However, the previous researches failed to bridge water inclusiveness with sustainability. This study developed a novel concept of water inclusive sustainability (WIS), the WIS framework and an evaluation system through incorporating the five indexes of availability, inclusiveness, sustainability, innovation and friendliness. An improved and integrated evaluation method is also developed to measure the WIS for 38 cities and three city clusters in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) from 2008 to 2018. The spatial and temporal evolution of the coordinating capacity and key impediments are observed. The results show that: 1) a slight ascending tendency at a comparatively middle level in the WIS of the YREB, and friendliness > sustainability > inclusiveness > availability > innovation index; 2) being in a low coordination, the 38 cities and their temporal evolution of coordinating capacity present society < environment < science and technology < water resources subsystem; 3) the spatial differentiation in the west is obviously lower than that in the east. The main impediments are from 12 factors. The discoveries will be of great value in monitoring the cities' WIS and ensuring the security of water resources of the YREB.