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Achieving high-quality economic development under the new development pattern has become an inevitable requirement for China’s economic development. Correctly calculating the value of water resources and optimizing the price mechanism of water resources is one of the important guarantees for promoting the high-quality development of the regional economy. Based on this fact, this paper takes Hubei Province as an example to construct a coupling relationship model between water resources and economic high-quality development and to evaluate the coupling coordination between the two. And then, the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation model is used to evaluate the value of water resources in Hubei Province, and recalculate its water price. The results show that Hubei province now is a lagging development of water resources, and the current water price is far lower than assessed. The government should improve the mechanism of water price which should be driven by innovation to adjust the water use structure, finally achieve high-quality economic development of Hubei Province. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is distinct from existing studies on water resources carrying capacity which usually use dimensionless data to represent trend and status of water resources carrying capacity. Here, on the grounds of the most stringent water resource management system and following the principles of water determining population, water determining city scale, water determining production and so on, water resources carrying capacity prediction model was established. The water resources carrying capacity was represented by population, which can directly reflect the status of water resources. Under the rigid constraints of water use quantity and water use efficiency, six scenarios were set to predict China's maximum population in 2030. The results demonstrated that the maximum population in each scenario is close to 1.45 billion of National Population Development Plan. It means water resources rigid constraints can support population and economic growth at the socio-economic development current pace and path. Total water use quantity will not break through the limit of 800-900 billion m3 when achieving the expected goals of social and economic development, not even more than 700 billion m3. Meanwhile, in order to relieve water resources stress, to improve water resources carrying capacity, and to accelerate construction of a water-saving society, some suggestions were put forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]