Abstract
Rapid economic growth has led to a surge in urban water consumption, making it imperative to reduce economic dependence on water resources to achieve sustainable urban development. This study selects Xi'an as the study area and adopts the Tapio decoupling model from the perspective of the integrating water footprint (WF) and physical water (PW) to measure the state and the stability of decoupling, and the LMDI method is introduced to decompose WF and PW into five drivers. The results show that: (1) Xi'an's water efficiency increased substantially from 48.05 CNY/m3 in 2008 to 153.43 CNY/m3 in 2018, but the urban water shortage remains a serious problem. (2) Water consumption and economic growth are generally decoupled weakly and strongly; compared with PW, WF has a stronger decoupling but is less stable. Agricultural decoupling is stronger than industrial decoupling; decoupling stability is higher for industrial PW, followed by agricultural WF, and lowest for agricultural PW. (3) Technology contributes significantly to the decoupling of PW and WF, while water-use efficiency and population size inhibit the decoupling, and these factors have a more significant impact on WF than PW. The study's findings can be used to formulate effective measures to promote sustainable urban development.
Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
