China prefecture-level water gap assessement dataset in 1965-2023

The excess water use beyond the available water resources for human economic and social development will be considered as a regional water gap. Water resources that can be explored by humans is tthe amount of water that can be used without affecting the ecological environment. Here 40% of the available water resources are used as the threshold. When the water use in a certain region exceeds the threshold, it means that water use exceeds the carrying capacity of the ecological environment, and there is a water gap. If the water use is below the threshold, the local water resources can meet the needs of human economy and society, and there is no water gap.