Sustainable water stewardship in China's industrial parks

Abstract

As a common global feature, the industrial park has witnessed rapid economic development and experienced far-reaching water challenges. This study develops a decision-making model integrating multistakeholder, water volume-value-quality, and techno-economic-environmental analyses from the perspective of life-cycle thinking to help policy-makers implement customized water stewardship solutions targeting China's industrial parks. The key findings are twofold. First, promoting water stewardship in industrial parks benefiting from geographical proximity has remarkable leverage effects and could achieve about 1/3 of environmental improvement by spending only 1% extra tax income, such as reconfiguring water system patterns, upgrading water recycling facilities and applying robust fiscal policies. Second, the model combines temporal-spatial characteristics, infrastructure availability, and pillar industry of the park, then offers client-tailored solutions consisting of water reuse system optimization, reclaimed water treatment processes adjustment, and financial budget projection. This study has promising implications for manufacturing-intensive industrial parks in water-deficient areas pursuing sustainable water management.