Evaluating Impacts of Industrial Transformation on Water Consumption in the Heihe River Basin of Northwest China

Feng Wu,Jinyan Zhan,Qian Zhang,Zhongxiao Sun,Zhan Wang

doi:10.3390/su6118283

Abstract

Growing water scarcity is one of the central challenges for sustainability in China, given its burgeoning industry and huge population, especially in the arid and semi-arid inland river basin where precipitation is very limited. Industrial transformation is an important engine of economic growth, which is required to be implemented by governments at all levels in China. Economic models have generally been applied to evaluate the effects of economic policy change (e.g., industrial transformation or adjustment of price) on the allocation of production factors. The computable general equilibrium (CGE) model is an effective tool to reallocate the primary factors across sectors for different industrial transformation scenarios. In this research, we first briefly introduced the principles and structure of the CGE model, which embeds water resources as a primary factor of production. Then we chose Zhangye as an example to evaluate the impacts of industrial transformation on water consumption under three designed scenarios with the water-embedded CGE model. Simulation results showed that there will be considerable water saving benefit from industrial transformation when the output value of secondary industry and tertiary industry increases and the contribution of the planting sector to the total output value decreases. Finally, we put forward a scheme that can improve water utilization efficiency in policy options.

Highlights

Water is an essential resource for guaranteeing socio-economic development and maintaining healthy ecosystems
The simulation results show that the output value of all the sectors increased under scenario 1 when the output value of the secondary industry increased by 5% (Figure 4a)
Under scenario 1, when the output value of the secondary industry increased by 5%, the annual GDP increased by 0.80%, while the water consumption per unit GDP decreased from 80 m3/104 cultivated land types (CNY) under the baseline scenario to

Summary

Introduction

Water is an essential resource for guaranteeing socio-economic development and maintaining healthy ecosystems. Attention is increasingly being paid to water resources because of extreme pressure from economic growth and corresponding changes of life patterns, as well as the serious water scarcity induced by climate change and anthropogenic activities. The growing scarcity of fresh water has been caused by a rapid increase in water demand to develop economies, improve the environment, support people’s daily life, and sustain development in many regions of the world [2]. The contradiction between the decrease in water supply and the increase in water demand has posed a new challenge to sustainable development, a number of international institutions have issued some water-related policies to keep a tradeoff between maintaining water supply for economic development and meeting ecological water demand [3]. Industrial transformation is recognized as a key factor in the sustainable use of natural resources in economic development

Methods

Results

Conclusion