Regional water resource carrying capacity evaluation based on multi-dimensional precondition cloud and risk matrix coupling model

Water resource carrying capacity modelling is a fundamental task to explore the interaction mechanism between socio-economic development and water resource carrying system. To reasonably quantify regional water resource carrying capacity, firstly, the water resource carrying system was divided into pressure, support and regulation forces subsystems, then the multi-dimensional precondition cloud algorithm was introduced to quantify the belonging degree of single evaluation index, and the comprehensive belonging degree of each sample was further obtained through risk matrix and index weight, and finally the multi-dimensional precondition cloud and risk matrix coupling model (PCRM) was established to recognize carrying grade and reveal carrying mechanism. The application results of PCRM model indicated that water resource carrying capacity in Anhui province, China presented a slightly improving trend in both provincial and city scales during 2005 to 2015. Meanwhile, evaluation result of PCRM model was more approaching to the average characteristic value of different approaches, which indicated that PCRM coupling model is effectively to explore properties of indexes and subsystems of water resource carrying system, and could be further applied in other system evaluation and regulation research fields in the future. [Display omitted] •Cloud model and risk matrix were used to assess water resources carrying capacity.•Water resources carrying system can be described by 3 subsystems and 11 indices.•Water resources carrying capacity in Anhui province presented slight improving trend.•Result of Cloud model is more beneficial to recognize water resources carrying grade.