Skip to main content
. 2026 Apr 2;13(9):nwag205. doi: 10.1093/nsr/nwag205

Figure 7.

Four maps show regional sustainability early-warning results in China. The 2014 national assessment identifies overload mainly in major economic belts and urbanized regions, driven chiefly by water scarcity in the northwest and environmental pressure in developed areas. In the Yangtze River Economic Belt, adding more pollution indicators in 2017 greatly expands overloaded areas.

The results of early-warning assessments of regional sustainability in China. (a) National assessment for China conducted in 2014. (b) Spatial distribution of key constraint factors within overloaded and critical overload zones. (c) Regional sustainability early-warning for the YREB in 2017 based on the 2014 methodology. (d) Regional sustainability early-warning for the YREB in 2017 based on the updated methodology incorporating a more comprehensive set of pollution indicators. Data are derived from Refs. [20,79].