Study of regional water footprint of industrial sectors: the case of Chaoyang City, Liaoning Province, China

Abstract

Large-scale industrial activities are primary causes of the crisis in global water resources and water pollution problems. The water footprint (WF) is a new analytical tool which assesses comprehensive impacts on water resources, and it has become a major research direction in water resource assessment and management. However, until now, research into the WF in industrial areas has been very limited. In this study, the accounting method of the WF of industrial sectors and processes was set up. Then, as a case study, the WF of industrial sectors in Chaoyang, a typical semi-arid area in China, was assessed in detail. The results showed that the total WF of industrial sectors was 142,196 million L/yr in Chaoyang in 2009, with smelting and pressing of ferrous metals (SPF) having the largest share (39%). The total gray WF of all industrial sectors was 71,802 million L/yr, slightly larger than the blue WF. The largest share of the total gray WF was SPF with 49,626 million L/yr, accounting for 69%. The regional average WF per unit of gross industrial output value was 1.98 L/yuan. Mining and processing of nonferrous metal ores (MPNM) and production and supply of electric power and heat power (PSEH) were the two sectors with the highest value of this measure, respectively, 13.09 L/yuan and 11.58 L/yuan, while the manufacture of raw chemical materials and chemical products (MRP) and manufacture of electrical machinery and equipment (ME) were the sectors with the lowest value, only 0.08 L/yuan each. This result implied that SPF is the key point in controlling industrial water pollution in Chaoyang, and to achieve a win–win solution for both regional economic development and water security, the sectors with relatively high WF intensity (e.g., MPNM and PSEH) should be reasonably controlled and those with relatively low WF intensity (e.g., MRP and ME) should be preferentially developed.