Analysis of the Spatial Characteristics of the Water Usage Patterns Based on ESDA-GIS: An Example of Hubei Province, China

The spatial characteristics and the high-duty water regions of the Water Usage Patterns (WUP) are very important for the allocation and management of water resources. Taken Hubei province, China as an example, we adopted the exploratory spatial data analysis (ESDA) method to investigate the spatial dependence and local patterns of the WUP from 2003 to 2012. Subsequently, the spatial variation mechanisms were analyzed through the gravity center model. The results indicated that the overall spatial dependence of the agricultural WUP was detected (more significant after 2008). Moreover, the global spatial autocorrelation analysis results on the domestic WUP showed statistical significance (Moran's I > 0.1, P < 0.05). These indicated that the local patterns were presented. The high values clustering areas of the agricultural and domestic WUP were mainly distributed in the central province and in the western province respectively. However, the approximate random distribution was identified for the industrial WUP because the industrial development had been conducted widely in the whole province during these years. Furthermore, the governmental policies and natural environment contributed to the spatial evolution tendency of the WUP. An increasing trend of the spatial association of the agricultural WUP and a significant decreasing trend of that of the domestic WUP, which suggested that the natural circumstance superiority and the industrial structure adjustment related to water utilization has been utilized and implemented effectively. This study can provide a useful reference and guidance for scientific planning of water resource systems.