Abstract
The evaluation of regional water and energy consumption is of great significance to improving regional resource utilization. This paper analyzed the water and energy footprints in different provinces of China, considering regional economic levels. The results indicate: (1) both the largest water footprint and water footprint per capita were in Xinjiang and agriculture had the largest value; (2) Shandong was the largest energy consumer, Ningxia had the largest energy footprint per capita, and coal occupied the largest proportion for the top five energy footprint provinces; and (3) the resource input–output efficiencies in Beijing and Fujian were high, while water and energy consumption were low and gross regional product was high, compared with the average value of China. The situations in Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia were opposite. The change of consumption pattern for each inhabitant, the adoption of water-saving technology, and an increase to water-saving awareness would be helpful to decrease regional water consumption. An increase of regional energy use efficiency and a change to reduced energy consumption would contribute to the decreasing of regional energy consumption. More attention should be paid to renewable and clean Energies. In addition to solution from the local perspective, the virtual water trade and the energy product trade may relieve regional resource pressure in some extent, and the possible influencing should be considered at the same time. This paper could provide suggestions for regional resource utilization and sustainable development.
Highlights
In 2015, the United Nations promoted 17 sustainable development goals, including protecting water and energy resources, achieving reasonable production and consumption pattern and others, for a more sustainable development process by 2030 [1]
In 2002, Hoekstra proposed the concept of the water footprint, which refers to the amount of water resources consumed to produce products or services [2]
Considering the population of different regions, we could find that the water consumption per capita in Xinjiang (1468.93 m3/cap) was much larger than other regions, and the value was 2.55 times of that of Inner Mongolia (575.83 m3/cap), the region with the second-largest water footprint per capita
Summary
In 2015, the United Nations promoted 17 sustainable development goals, including protecting water and energy resources, achieving reasonable production and consumption pattern and others, for a more sustainable development process by 2030 [1]. In 2002, Hoekstra proposed the concept of the water footprint, which refers to the amount of water resources consumed to produce products or services [2]. Scholars have analyzed global water stress by virtue of the concept of water footprint for sustainable water management [3,4,5]. Studies using this method have been performed in different areas of the world. The water footprints related to different types of crops were explored by Bazrafshan et al [9] and Zoumides et al [10], in case studies of Iran and Cyprus respectively, mentioning both changes to cultivated area and water use efficiency. The water footprint of China has been studied by many researchers [11,12,13]
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