Understanding the Human-Water Relationship in China during 722 B.C.-1911 A.D. from a Contradiction and Co-Evolutionary Perspective

There are increasing concerns on the impact of population growth on sustainable use of water resources utilization. In this context, this paper aims to develop a conceptual framework for understanding the human-water system from the contradiction and co-evolutionary perspective. In this paper, the three contradiction relationships including those of human-water system, climate change and war condition, productive forces and production relations are analyzed by choosing six proxy indicators, and a set of historical data during 722 B.C.-1911 A.D., in China is used as the case study. Human and water is a co-evolution system as the coefficient of determination (R2) between population and water governance activities is 0.9. Advanced productive forces and production relations play an important role in promoting population growth and water governance activities evidenced by high R2 between any two of them. Generally, the co-evolutionary process of these three contradictions can be divided into three stages: slow development, moderate development and fast development. The conceptual framework developed in this study can be used to analyze the evolution of similar human-water systems in the world. Moreover, further research should be done through the simulation of the form and cycles of the three contradiction relationships.