The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Metropolitan Region is the biggest urbanized
megalopolis in North China. The region has one the lowest water
resources availability per capita in China and around the world. Rapid
economic development in the past 40 years has resulted in substantially
increased water consumption in the region which led to various water
security problems including huge burden on water supply, groundwater
overdraft, serious damage of river and lake ecosystems etc. Water
scarcity has now become one of the largest limiting factors that hinders
the further development of the region. The objective of water resources
management in this region is thus to ensure healthy balances between the
natural and the societal water circulation. This means we need to
protect the natural hydrological flow to maintain water's service
functions, and in the meantime fulfill the increasing water demand for
economic growth. In the present study, we inspected past evolution and
future trend of the region's water budget, and subsequently proposed
methods for restricting water use and promoting multi-source water
supply optimization. This research also reviewed some new concepts and
technologies which can potentially help us overcome the water security
challenges in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.