Examining China's water pressure from industrialization driven by consumption and export during 2002–2015

Abstract

Water depletion and pollution caused by industrialization have become major environmental concerns worldwide, which are further complicated by the urbanization and globalization. China has become an industrial powerhouse for the world, and its industrial activities-induced water pressure is no longer negligible. This study investigates China's industrial water pressure from final consumption and international export based on water footprint (WF) and dynamic structure decomposition analysis (SDA). The industrial blue and gray WFs with respect to rural consumption, urban consumption, and export are accounted for 2002–2015, and an advanced dynamic SDA model is developed and applied to examining the evolving WFs with 9 socio-economic drivers quantified. Results show that China's water resources pressure is intensified due to the increase of total industrial blue WF (by 47.4%) for 2002–2015, whereas a mitigation of water environment pressure is suggested by the decreasing gray virtual water outflow and total internal gray WF (by 31.9% and 36.4%, respectively). The SDA demonstrates that export scale and urban consumption level are two major drivers of water situation deterioration, which accumulatively contribute 38.3% and 33.0% to the evolving blue and gray WFs, respectively. In contrast, technology development is the dominant contributor alleviating China's water pressure, with absolute contribution proportions of 38.9% and 56.5%, correspondingly. Based on these, export regulation, consumption pattern adjustment and technological innovation are recommended for water policy making. The methodology used in this study can be extended to diagnosing the water issues in other nations/regions as well.