Evaluation of Agricultural Water Resources Carrying Capacity and Its Influencing Factors: A Case Study of Townships in the Arid Region of Northwest China

The water resources carrying capacity (WRCC) strongly determines the agricultural development in arid areas. Evaluation of WRCC is important balancing availability with society’s economic and environmental demands. Given demand for sustainable utilization resources, we combine stress index comprehensive use multi-source data to evaluate its influencing factors at township scale. It makes up deficiencies current research, such as existence single-index evaluation systems, limited calibration data, a lack sub-watershed (i.e., township) By applying this study expands spatial scale assessment establishes multidimensional framework dryland agriculture. results indicate ranges from 0.52 1.67, 0.25 0.70, which are significantly different types irrigation areas townships. Water quantity management key WRCC, ecosystem an area requiring improvement, environment not constraint. Different townships should implement targeted measures improve WRCC.