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The provision of an efficient water supply service (WSS) is crucial for the well-being of citizens and the sustainability of cities. This study aims to evaluate the performance of WSS using the results of a household survey and the ranking of performance indicators (PIs) by the analytic hierarchy process method. The methodology developed was tested for the case of the city of Taoura (Algeria). A survey was carried out among 340 residents of the city. The survey results showed that the majority of respondents (70%) were relatively dissatisfied with the quantity of water provided and 67% of households surveyed rated the quality of service as poor. Then, the performance was evaluated according to 5 decision criteria and 20 PIs. The results of the evaluation of the relative weights of the criteria are as follows: the ‘Financial and economic’ criterion plays the most important role, with a relative weight of 38.61%, followed by the ‘Operational’ criterion (24.7%) and the criterion ‘Physics’ (17.32%). The methodology used in this study can be a reliable tool for evaluating the performance of WSS in developing countries. HIGHLIGHTS Development of a methodological framework to identify and classify performance indicators.; Water supply services are facing issues in achieving sustainability objectives.; Five criteria and 20 performance indicators were identified for assessment.; Weights were generated using the analytic hierarchy process.; Calculate the benefits for households and water companies with the new water tariff estimated by the willingness to pay (WTP).;

In developing countries like Ethiopia, ensuring the sustainability of water supply systems is a significant challenge. To achieve the Sustainable Development Goal 6 of providing clean water to people worldwide, understanding customer perceptions and satisfaction is crucial. This study conducted questionnaire surveys and interviews with key stakeholders in Adama town to assess customer satisfaction and service quality dimensions. Of 435 participants, 275 (63.22%) were females and 160 (36.78%) were males. The analysis revealed that all dimensions of service quality significantly affected customer satisfaction at a 5% level of significance. Specifically, tangibility, responsiveness, and assurance had a highly significant effect on customer satisfaction (p = 0.001). However, reliability, tangibility, and responsiveness scored below 50% in the overall Customer Satisfaction Index, indicating customer dissatisfaction. On the other hand, assurance and empathy scored above or equal to 50%, suggesting satisfactory levels of customer satisfaction. The study highlighted the importance of addressing Adama's pressure and billing problems to improve the empathy dimension. Enhancing services in these areas would contribute to overall customer satisfaction. The findings of this study are valuable for appropriate municipal service planning and management, facilitating service enhancement and cost recovery efforts. HIGHLIGHTS The overall customer satisfaction index was 41% which implied that the customers were unsatisfied.; Tangibility, responsiveness, and assurance have a highly significant (p-values < 0.001) effect on customer satisfaction.; Female respondents (41%) were more satisfied than males (21%) with AWSSE's services provision.;

The water supply services of the Li River are essential for the ecological environment and local social development. Based on the InVEST model, we quantitatively analyzed the spatial and temporal distribution patterns of water supply services in the Li River Basin from 2000 to 2018 at multiple scales, including the raster, sub-basin, and regional scales, clarified the differences in water yield among different land use types, and explored the different stages of changes in the characteristics of water services. The results revealed four key aspects of this system. (1) The water supply service of Li River Basin showed a spatial distribution pattern of high in the north and low in the south, and the water yield gradually decreased from north to south. (2) Among the various land use types in Li River Basin, the average water supply capacity decreased in the following order: artificial surface, unused land, grassland, forest, cropland and wetland. (3) The average amounts of water services in the 18 sub-basins varied widely, with four sub-basins belonging to the high-value area for water supply services, eight in the middle-value area, and six in the low-value area. (4) From 2000 to 2010, the regions with large fluctuations in water supply services include the midstream region, Lipu River region, and the northern region of Gongcheng River; while from 2010 to 2018, the areas with large fluctuations were in the midstream region and Gongcheng River region. The results of this research increase our understanding of the water supply services in the Li River Basin and provide a critical scientific basis for the reverse compensation of a regional ecological compensation mechanism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water supply services (WSSs) are critical to human survival and development. The Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Trade-offs (InVEST) model enables an integrated, dynamic, and visual assessment of ecosystem services at different scales. In addition, Geodetector is an effective tool for identifying the main driving factors of spatial heterogeneity of ecosystem services. Therefore, this article takes the Three Gorges Reservoir Area (TGRA), the most prominent strategic reserve of freshwater resources in China, as the study area and uses the InVEST model to simulate the spatiotemporal heterogeneity of the supply-demand balance of WSSs and freshwater security patterns in 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2018, and explores the key driving factors of freshwater security index (FSI) with Geodetector. The total supply of WSSs in the TGRA decreased by 1.05% overall between 2005 and 2018, with the head and tail areas being low-value regions for water yield and the central part of the belly areas being high-value regions for water yield. The total demand for WSSs in the TGRA increased by 9.1%, with the tail zones and the central part of the belly zones being the high water consumption areas. In contrast, the head zones are of low water consumption. The multi-year average FSI of the TGRA is 0.12, 0.1, 0.21, and 0.16, showing an upward trend. The key ecological function areas in the TGRA are high-value FSI regions, while the tail zones in the key development areas are low-value FSI regions. Industrial water consumption significantly impacts FSI, with a multi-year average q value of 0.82. Meanwhile, the q value of industrial and domestic water consumption on FSI in 2018 increased by 43.54% and 30%, respectively, compared with 2005. This study analyzes the spatiotemporal variation of WSSs and detects the drivers in the natural-economic-social perspective and innovation in ecosystem services research. The study results can guide water resource security management in other large reservoirs or specific reservoir areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Revenue mobilization is critical for community-managed water systems to overcome financial constraints and to achieve financial sustainability. Using data from beneficiaries of a community managed water supply system in Ghana, we employed descriptive statistics, chi-square, perception index and document review of the system’s financial reports to assess beneficiaries’ views and perception on revenue mobilization for operations and maintenance, system expansion as well as sustainability of the project. The results showed that revenue mobilization for sustainability of operations and maintenance is significantly influenced by water connection type and religion while marital status, age and income of beneficiaries determine sustainability of the project’s expansion. The findings further revealed a significant relationship between sustainability of replacement of the project’s accessories and water connection type as well as gender, marital status, age and income of beneficiaries. The average perception index of 3.2 showed that beneficiaries perceived revenue mobilization as very good for replacing the water system’s accessories. Revenue mobilization is able to support the water system’s expansion to help meet the increasing water demands. In addition, with an average perception index of 3.6, the beneficiaries’ perception was that revenue was enough to fund operations and maintenance. Furthermore, the document review of the system’s financial reports confirmed beneficiaries’ perception of sufficiency of revenue for operations and maintenance. Finally, we found weaknesses in revenue mobilization with over 40% of bills in arrears, mostly from private users. To build resilience to the financial crisis with enhanced innovations, the study recommends the institution of effective debt recovery strategies such as the provision of pre-paid metering for private users, adoption of a public standpipe pay-as-you-fetch system as well as the introduction of smart tap technology for public standpipes in community-managed water supply systems.

The topic of commercialisation in the water services sector has been subject to heated debate over the past years. By drawing on an analysis of the service of small towns by the National Water and Sewerage Corporation of Uganda, we argue that multiple interpretations of the commercialisation of services can coexist within a single water utility. Whereas the water utility claims to adhere to a model of commercial water provisioning, the implemented model shows significant deviations from the ideal. In this article, we elaborate on the organisational strategies that help sustain a dissonance between what is prescribed in the discourse and what happens on the ground and we mobilise the concept of organised hypocrisy to describe these strategies. We highlight that the water utility needs to show adherence to a commercial public utility model in order to access resources from donors and the national government, while it must at the same time provide actual water services to these towns. The collective celebration of the success of the discursive model of commercialisation, despite the deviations to the model during implementation, promotes the persistence of this model in the international policy domain.

The present study delves into the global issue of privatization and the remunicipalization of water services/suppliers with special reference to the case of Greece. Through the analysis of several successful and unsuccessful management practices of water services that have been implemented around the world, the article concludes with the proposed water supply model for Greece, and specifically for municipal water supply and sewerage companies (MWSSCs), through the application of the appropriate form of public–private partnerships (PPPs). The final proposal takes into account the weaknesses of the existing water supply systems in Greece, the social impact of recent privatization efforts, the current legal and institutional framework, and the economic special characteristics of our country.

At present, many studies have used social survey methods to explore UK water citizens' perceptions of the water sector's water services, but there are few more targeted and systematic studies. This paper mainly displays the perceptions of UK water citizens on water services in the water sector in recent years and analyses the main reasons for different perceptions and possible strategies. We conduct extensive research from four aspects that are highly related to water services: water citizens' perceptions of the water supply services and technology application (infrastructure construction) provided by the water sector; the state of communication between the water sector and water citizens and their perceptions of water supply management; water citizens' perceptions of the comprehensive utilisation of water resources in the water sector; water citizens' perceptions of the water prices set by the water sector. These discussions aim to discover citizens' perceptions of the water sector and the effects on the public participation mechanism. These insights help attract the water sector's attention so that the public's opinions can genuinely support water policymakers and provide sure support for the water sector to formulate corresponding solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecosystem service (ES) flow reveals the transregional benefits transferred from service supply areas (SSAs) to service benefiting areas (SBAs), which correspond to the sellers and buyers of interregional ecological compensation, respectively. However, current ecological compensation policies usually ignore this close connection. This study took the water supply services (WSSs) with the most obvious flow characteristics as an example and established a universal framework for interregional ecological compensation by combining WSSs flow simulation and regional disparity. The simulation process was programmed with Interactive Data Language (IDL) and analyzed with ArcGIS. Most regions serve as a dual role in the WSSs flow process, the water suppliers and users are relative and scale-dependent. Taking Ningxia as an example, As water benefiting areas (WBAs)/buyers, the total material inflow to Ningxia was 135.86 × 108 ~ 294.22 × 108 m3 from 2000 to 2015 and the value inflow ranged from 1077.39 × 108 ~ 2333.16 × 108 CNY, requiring 101.64 × 108 ~ 293.51 × 108 CNY ecological compensation paid by Ningxia. As water supply areas (WSAs)/sellers, the total material outflow from Ningxia was 72.83 × 108 ~ 200.46 × 108 m3 from 2000 to 2015, and the value outflow was between 577.54 × 108 CNY and 1589.65 × 108 CNY, requiring 63.80 × 108 ~ 112.34 × 108 CNY of ecological compensation to be paid by the downstream basins, especially the Shizuishan – Hekou Town subbasin. Overall, Ningxia was a beneficiary area of WSSs flow and the payers of interregional ecological compensation, with a net payment amount of 37.84 × 108 ~ 181.16 × 108 CNY. This study provides a direct spatial-visualized reference to water resource management for policy-makers and promotes the integration of ES flow and interregional ecological compensation. Furthermore, it can improve the public recognition of interregional ecological compensation with the spatial mapping of the levy and allocation and conducive to the sustainable provisioning of ESs ultimately.

Water supply services (WSSs) are critical to human survival and development. The Integrated Valuation of Ecosystem Services and Trade-offs (InVEST) model enables an integrated, dynamic, and visual assessment of ecosystem services at different scales. In addition, Geodetector is an effective tool for identifying the main driving factors of spatial heterogeneity of ecosystem services. Therefore, this article takes the Three Gorges Reservoir Area (TGRA), the most prominent strategic reserve of freshwater resources in China, as the study area and uses the InVEST model to simulate the spatiotemporal heterogeneity of the supply-demand balance of WSSs and freshwater security patterns in 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2018, and explores the key driving factors of freshwater security index (FSI) with Geodetector. The total supply of WSSs in the TGRA decreased by 1.05% overall between 2005 and 2018, with the head and tail areas being low-value regions for water yield and the central part of the belly areas being high-value regions for water yield. The total demand for WSSs in the TGRA increased by 9.1%, with the tail zones and the central part of the belly zones being the high water consumption areas. In contrast, the head zones are of low water consumption. The multi-year average FSI of the TGRA is 0.12, 0.1, 0.21, and 0.16, showing an upward trend. The key ecological function areas in the TGRA are high-value FSI regions, while the tail zones in the key development areas are low-value FSI regions. Industrial water consumption significantly impacts FSI, with a multi-year average q value of 0.82. Meanwhile, the q value of industrial and domestic water consumption on FSI in 2018 increased by 43.54% and 30%, respectively, compared with 2005. This study analyzes the spatiotemporal variation of WSSs and detects the drivers in the natural-economic-social perspective and innovation in ecosystem services research. The study results can guide water resource security management in other large reservoirs or specific reservoir areas.

The topic of commercialisation in the water services sector has been subject to heated debate over the past years. By drawing on an analysis of the service of small towns by the National Water and Sewerage Corporation of Uganda, we argue that multiple interpretations of the commercialisation of services can coexist within a single water utility. Whereas the water utility claims to adhere to a model of commercial water provisioning, the implemented model shows significant deviations from the ideal. In this article, we elaborate on the organisational strategies that help sustain a dissonance between what is prescribed in the discourse and what happens on the ground and we mobilise the concept of organised hypocrisy to describe these strategies. We highlight that the water utility needs to show adherence to a commercial public utility model in order to access resources from donors and the national government, while it must at the same time provide actual water services to these towns. The collective celebration of the success of the discursive model of commercialisation, despite the deviations to the model during implementation, promotes the persistence of this model in the international policy domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The sustainable management of drinking water supply services (WSS) is essential to ensure continuous supply to all citizens. In this paper, a combined approach between the Delphi method and two Multi-Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) methods has been developed to assess the performance of WSS. The suggested methodology is composed of three phases divided into twenty-one steps. The first phase is the application of the Delphi method to select the evaluation criteria and the alternatives based on the responses of a group of experts. A total of 12 criteria and 6 alternatives are identified from past studies and expert opinions. The second phase is the use of the Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) method to calculate the relative weights of the criteria. Then, Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) is used to rank the alternatives according to their performance. Finally, an application of the developed framework was established for a case study of Souk-Ahras city (Algeria). The results from FAHP indicate that the financial autonomy and the technical performance criteria are of paramount importance WSS performance evaluation with weights (19.5%) and (19%) respectively. The two alternatives (reduced water loss and water price reform) are the best solutions to have a sustainable WSS. This study presents an effective decision support tool allowing decision makers and WSS managers to better assess performance criteria and the best alternatives. • Application of a hybrid method (Delphi-FAHP-TOPSIS) for the evaluation of the performance of water supply services (WSS). • Analysis of the management of drinking water supply services in Algeria. • Financial autonomy and technical performance are the two most influential criteria on the sustainability of WSS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water supply services (WSSs) are critical for the regional water balance and water circulation, but relevant studies have not established the relationship between WSSs and human well-being. This research identifies the scope of areas that benefit from WSSs from an ecosystem service flow perspective. Moreover, the path and quantity of the flow of WSSs are simulated to provide a scientific theoretical basis for ecosystem service management and ecological compensation. The Dongjiang Lake Basin is a national priority river basin in China where ecological compensation pilot programmes concerning water resources are top priorities. Dongjiang Lake Basin experienced an increase and then a decrease in the overall supply of water, with an average net water supply of 1096-1500 mm for the years 1995, 2000, 2005 and 2010. The water demand increased each year in service beneficiary areas (SBAs), varying from 387 to 580 mm. Overall, Dongjiang Lake Basin met the net water demands of the actual SBAs in the lower reaches, but a gap in the water supply and demand emerged gradually. This research provides an understanding of the functional mechanisms for the provision, demand and flow of WSSs and provides a scientific theoretical basis for ecosystem service management and ecological compensation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existence of the safe water supply and sewerage systems, especially in the rural areas of Romania, are mandatory for the insurance of the public health. In this context, a series of Romanian regional water and sewerage services suppliers developed Total Quality Management Systems, starting with the implementation of multiple ISO standards and in response to the need for answering to high requirements, both for constant development / modernization of the infrastructure and expansions to new consumers, as for the permanent improvement of the water supply, sewerage and wastewater treatment’s quality. The Total Quality Management Systems inter-relate a series of quality components, all of them functioning in a unitary–integrated way, using specific rules and procedures for assuring the increase of the delivered services’ quality and performance. The results begin to be seen on all areas of the concerned water suppliers’ activity: from the operational field to the commercial, staff’s performance, environmental and customer care ones. one of the main fundaments of the monetary creation – aspect which is indissolubly related to the idea of evolution, more precisely, to the idea of economic development.

One of Romania's current priorities is to expand and improve the services of centralized water supply so that the entire population to benefit from the water line EU of drinking water. The greatest savings of investments in expansion and improvement of water services can be made in the establishment of the development strategy. An important part of determining the development strategy of water supply services is a strategic diagnostic analysis of the service in which it analyzes internal and external factors affecting such services. Strategic diagnostic analysis is usually done in companies, in this case the water operators. In this study intends expanding business analysis and the outcome operators namely water supply services and sewerage water. This study concerns the analysis of external environment and its influence on water supply services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water supply (WS) tariffs have evolved significantly in the past decades, although in a varying fashion around the world. Indeed, this development is linked to increasingly demanding requirements, or objectives that have to be achieved by water utilities (e.g., stricter quality standards and infrastructure maintenance levels, cost recovery, social concerns and environmental protection demands). The perception of WS tariffs as a powerful management tool, subject to context dependent objectives, raises the concern on how utilities prioritize them. This hierarchy is desirable due to the possible conflicting nature of objectives. From that point of view, and on the basis of protecting the public interest, the fitness between objectives set by the utilities and actual needs may require a broader institutional approach. The need for regulatory activity may be required in the context of too much arbitrariness in tariff setting procedures. For this objective, a regulatory tool is set, based on multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) modeling methods, to provide a requisite framework capable of considering the multiple dimensions of WS tariffs and the assessment of specialists, practitioners and other legitimate stakeholders in the 'tariff setting' decision making process. The specified tariff suitability framework (TSF) will work as a regulatory tool, taking into account the utilities' particular context and background factors. The outcomes allow to determine the tariff suitability and to build tailored policy recommendations, which are critical aspects for a sound regulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In most developing countries like India, benchmarking of water supply utilities is rarely carried out as these services are not run on professional lines to ensure profitability, even as social goals of making provision for all, including the poor, take priority over profitability. When performances of these services are not measured, efforts to improve these services remain directionless and arbitrary. Urban water supplies in India, therefore, suffer a self-inflicted fate, wherein city municipalities remain mired in mundane issues, leading to large dissatisfaction and inefficiencies. This paper attempts to evolve a framework for evaluating cost efficiencies of water supply services and applies stochastic frontier analysis to 18 urban centres in India through six models. The results indicate large relative inefficiencies and a scope of savings of 24.5% of average current operating and maintenance costs even with existing levels of resource inputs. The results are discussed from a regulatory and policy-making perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The existence of the safe water supply and sewerage systems, especially in the rural areas of Romania, are mandatory for the insurance of the public health. In this context, a series of Romanian regional water and sewerage services suppliers developed Total Quality Management Systems, starting with the implementation of multiple ISO standards and in response to the need for answering to high requirements, both for constant development/modernization of the infrastructure and expansions to new consumers, as for the permanent improvement of the water supply, sewerage and wastewater treatment's quality. The Total Quality Management Systems inter-relate a series of quality components, all of them functioning in a unitary--integrated way, using specific rules and procedures for assuring the increase of the delivered services' quality and performance. The results begin to be seen on all areas of the concerned water suppliers' activity: from the operational field to the commercial, staff's performance, environmental and customer care ones. one of the main fundaments of the monetary creation -- aspect which is indissolubly related to the idea of evolution, more precisely, to the idea of economic development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Korea, local governments are primarily responsible for providing water supply services to citizens. Since 2004, 15 local governments have contracted this service to the Korean Water Resources Corporation ( K- Water). This paper examines the effects of the two different institutional arrangements - direct public delivery versus contracting out to K- Water - on cost savings and productivity. To do so, it employs a hybrid cost function approach and uses the panel data covering the nine years from 2000 to 2008 in local governments. Empirical findings show mixed evidence on the effects of the two institutional arrangements on cost savings and productivity gains. Water supply costs are significantly lower under contracting out than under direct public delivery. However, there are no significant differences in productivity gains between the two institutional arrangements. Local water supply systems need to further reduce the average water supply costs through increasing their size and magnitude. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water-related ecosystem services is a hot topic in ecological research. Water supply services are crucial to regional water cycles and water quantity balance. The Dongjiang Lake basin is a national priority river basin in China where ecological compensation pilot programs concerning water resources and water supply services are top priorities for ecosystem service protection. We analyzed spatial and temporal patterns associated with generation and use of water supply services in the Dongjiang Lake basin using the InVEST model, socio-economic data and water resource data. We found that between 1995 and 2010, water yield in the Dongjiang Lake basin and its beneficiary areas increased before declining, varying 9350-12 400 m3 ha-1 y-1; average water yield peaked in 2000. The spatial distribution patterns of water yield during these years are similar, progressively decreasing from upstream to downstream with a remarkable reduction in surrounding areas of city clusters. Average water consumption of the basin and its beneficiary areas ranged from 2900-4450 m3 ha-1 y-1 between 1995 and 2010; the spatial distribution patterns of water consumption during these years are similar, dropping gradually from urban construction land to its surroundings with a stronger gradient between urban and rural areas. More water was consumed on both banks and surroundings of the lake. From 1995 to 2010, water supply fell short of demand for urban construction land and its proximity as well as areas along the lake. Water supply services were able to satisfy needs in other regions. The Changsha-Zhuzhou-Xiangtan city cluster suffers from the most strained water supply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Efficient and sustainable future investments in water infrastructure and improved water services should be based on a thorough understanding of public preferences and values. This paper examines the welfare effects of improved water supply services in a characteristic coastal area, where water policy makers should address both water quality and water quantity problems. A choice experiment method was designed and conducted in order to evaluate public preferences for alternative levels of water supply attributes: i.e. water quality, frequency of water supply interruptions and water availability for agriculture. Primary data were collected using a structured questionnaire from a sample of residents in the study area (Municipality of New Propontida, Greece). The results show a significant willingness to pay (WTP) for drinking water quality improvements and a lower yet important WTP to avoid interruptions in water services. In a cost-benefit framework, those findings may serve as a reference for sustainable water resources planning, aiming at deriving reliable estimates of social benefits from selected water management decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to quantify the impact of the forest on raw water quality within the framework of other land uses. On the basis of measurements of quality parameters that were identified as being the most problematic (i.e., pesticides and nitrates), we modeled how water quality is influenced by land uses. In order to assess the benefits provided by the forest in terms of improved water quality, we used variations of drinking water prices that were determined by the operating costs of water supply services (WSS). Given the variability of links between forests and water quality, we chose to cover all of France using data observed in each administrative department (France is divided into 95 départements), including a description of WSS and information on land uses. We designed a model that describes the impact of land uses on water quality, as well as the operation of WSS and prices. This bioeconomic model was estimated by the generalized method of moments (GMM) to account for endogeneity and heteroscedasticity issues. We showed that the forest has a positive effect on raw water quality compared to other land uses, with an indirect impact on water prices, making them lower for consumers. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This article reports a survey of consumers of water in the Portuguese autonomous region of Madeira. The survey was designed to establish the extent to which bills for that service inform users about critical aspects of the supply and encourage them to behave in environmentally-friendly ways. The evidence collected suggests that the bills lack this educational quality, suggesting that they should be redesigned to have that effect. The results constitute a wake-up call for regulators in this and other service industries: focusing on the design of bills may well have very positive effects in the development of more environmentally-friendly consumption, behaviour, and attitudes. This recognises the need for communities to own the water scarcity problem by responding in ways that ensure sustainable levels of water consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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[Display omitted] • Ecosystem service supply and benefiting areas correspond to the sellers and buyers of interregional ecological compensation (IEC), respectively. • Establishing an IEC framework of water supply services (WSSs) by combining WSSs flow simulation and regional disparity. • Most regions serve as a dual role in the WSSs flow process, which is relative and scale-dependent. • Dual role of water supply and benefiting areas lead to the two-way compensation. Ecosystem service (ES) flow reveals the transregional benefits transferred from service supply areas (SSAs) to service benefiting areas (SBAs), which correspond to the sellers and buyers of interregional ecological compensation, respectively. However, current ecological compensation policies usually ignore this close connection. This study took the water supply services (WSSs) with the most obvious flow characteristics as an example and established a universal framework for interregional ecological compensation by combining WSSs flow simulation and regional disparity. The simulation process was programmed with Interactive Data Language (IDL) and analyzed with ArcGIS. Most regions serve as a dual role in the WSSs flow process, the water suppliers and users are relative and scale-dependent. Taking Ningxia as an example, As water benefiting areas (WBAs)/buyers, the total material inflow to Ningxia was 135.86 × 108 ~ 294.22 × 108 m3 from 2000 to 2015 and the value inflow ranged from 1077.39 × 108 ~ 2333.16 × 108 CNY, requiring 101.64 × 108 ~ 293.51 × 108 CNY ecological compensation paid by Ningxia. As water supply areas (WSAs)/sellers, the total material outflow from Ningxia was 72.83 × 108 ~ 200.46 × 108 m3 from 2000 to 2015, and the value outflow was between 577.54 × 108 CNY and 1589.65 × 108 CNY, requiring 63.80 × 108 ~ 112.34 × 108 CNY of ecological compensation to be paid by the downstream basins, especially the Shizuishan – Hekou Town subbasin. Overall, Ningxia was a beneficiary area of WSSs flow and the payers of interregional ecological compensation, with a net payment amount of 37.84 × 108 ~ 181.16 × 108 CNY. This study provides a direct spatial-visualized reference to water resource management for policy-makers and promotes the integration of ES flow and interregional ecological compensation. Furthermore, it can improve the public recognition of interregional ecological compensation with the spatial mapping of the levy and allocation and conducive to the sustainable provisioning of ESs ultimately. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]