Comparative Advantages of Production Water in the Catchment Area of Kaidu-Kongque River, Xinjiang

In order to analyze the comparative advantage of production water in Kaidu-Kongque River Basin of Xinjiang, a model was constructed based on comparative advantage theory in this study. Cluster analysis of SPSS software was applied to assess regional differences. Results show that comparative advantage of production water varies by sector, which is affected mainly by the benefit advantage index. Compared with the average of Xinjiang, industrial water in Kaidu-Kongque River Basin maintains a comparative advantage, while irrigation water and forestry/livestock/fisheries water have a comparative disadvantage, which demonstrates that regional differentiation is introduced mainly by different conditions in natural, precipitation levels and socio-economic development. According to the calculation, cities in Kaidu-Kongque River Basin were divided into five categories, namely city with comparative advantage of production water, city with comparative advantage of industrial water, city with comparative advantage of irrigation water, city with comparative advantage of forestry/livestock/fisheries water, and city with comparative disadvantage of industrial water.