Abstract:

As to the data of water utilization in seventeen cities of Hubei Province from 2003 to 2006 and the comparative advantage principle(CAI)，the scale advantage indices (SAI) and benefit advantage indices (BAI) were calculated with the normalized revealed comparative advantage index (NRCA) model．The seventeen cities were clustered by the comparative advantage value，and the temporalspatial difference was analyzed，and we find that the driving factors which brought on the fluctuation of the comparative advantage index of productive water，were natural condition,natural resource, population,economic development level as well as water utilization benefit；and that of residential water was urbanization level．The results showed that the superiority regions of irrigation water utilization were in Jianghan Plain；the superiority regions of forestry，livestock and fisheries water utilization were in areas along the Yangtze River and herbage regions of Hubei Province；and the superiority regions of industrial water utilization were in the traditional industrial district of Hubei Province,such as Wuhan,Huangshi and Shiyan．The results show the feasibility of NRCA method in water resources advantage assessment