Abstract
We identified the key sectors of water resource use in China from the perspective of the water footprint to improve the use of water resources. The empirical results showed that there were six key sectors (including Crop Cultivation; Forestry; Livestock and Livestock Products; Fishery, Technical Services for Agriculture, Forestry, Livestock and Fishing; Other Food Products, and Scrap and Waste) for water consumption in China in 2015.We analyzed the use of green water, blue water, and grey water. These six sectors accounted for 66.15% of the total impact and 90.76% of the direct impact. Seven key sectors (the six sectors above plus Steel Processing)for the consumption of blue water in China can explain 59.70% of the total impact and 86.94% of the direct effect in 2015. Eight key sectors (Crop cultivation, Other food products, Scrap and Waste, Railway Freight Transport, Highway Freight and Passengers Transport, Water Freight and Passengers Transport, Pipeline Transport, and Health Services) responsible for the consumption of grey water in China in 2015 can explain 81.28% of the total impact and 95.73% of the direct impact. Therefore, the Chinese government should focus on the departments that manage water resources in these sectors when designing water-saving policies and improving water-use efficiency, such as promoting water-saving irrigation technology (including sprinkler irrigation and drip irrigation) in the agricultural sector.
Highlights
Water, the source of life, drives productivity
The focus of this study is as follows: Inspired by the model of identifying key sectors of carbon emissions developed by Alcantaraand Padilla [8], we explore the key sectors of green, blue, and grey water consumption in China from the perspective of the water footprint and discuss the corresponding policy recommendations
We first organized the water footprint data to analyze the industrial characteristics and trends to introduce the basics of water consumption in China so that readers can understand its water footprint; we conducted the studies on the key sectors of China’s water use
Summary
China’s demand for production water and domestic water has increased significantly due to its rapid economic development and population growth [1,2,3,4,5]. The spatial–temporal distribution of water resources is unbalanced. There is a serious imbalance between the supply and demand for water resources. Since there are multiple sectors in any economic system, it is critical to identify which sectors deserve special attention to better manage the limited water resources. We argue that the key sectors of water resource use are the sectors with large water resource consumption and the sectors where water resource use can greatly promote
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