Vulnerability Assessment of Water Environmental System in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) Region

Rapid population growth and increased economic activity impose an urgent challenge on the sustainability of water environmental system in Beijing - Tianjin - Hebei (BTH) region. Water environmental system is a complex uncertain system under change which is of vulnerability. But water environmental system vulnerability research is relatively weak. In this study, we present a multifunctional hierarchy indicator system for the performance evaluation of water environmental vulnerability (WEV). This paper constructed the assessment index system of water environment system based on PSR model which contained 24 indicators considering social-economy conditions and situation of water resources. Weights were calculated by the method of analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and entropy, and fuzzy set pair analysis assessment method (FSPAAM) was applied to evaluate the degree of vulnerability in the Beijing - Tianjin - Hebei region. The vulnerability degree in Beijing was from III to II, while in Tianjin was mostly III (except IV in 2013), and in Hebei was all III. Finally, we make some suggestions for water environmental management in BTH.