Abstract
China has been stressing the needs of promoting regional sustainable development through industrial transformation. In the northwest region of China, which is faced with both urgent socioeconomic development and fragile ecological conditions, with water scarcity being one of the major characters, the relationship between industrial transformation and water use efficiency ought to be investigated. This paper conducted an empirical analysis of industry transformation’s impact on water use efficiency by using the Input-output analysis. First, we compiled an extended Input-output table with water use account; Second, the input-output analysis model was built based on the extended Input-output table; Then, a counterfactual experiment was performed to document the water use efficiency caused by industrial transformation; Finally, water use efficiency of different sectors in both northwest region of China as a whole and its five provinces were calculated. The results show that water use efficiency of northwest region of China is improved by optimizing industrial structure. Also, sectors with low water use efficiency but huge improvement potential were found out. Then policy implications for regional sustainable development and water resources management are provided at the end of the article.
Highlights
The optimization of the industrial structure and the transformation process directly influence the stability of national economic development [1,2,3,4]
After building the I-O analysis model, we get the water use efficiency by industry sectors of the northwest region of China in 2002 and 2007 for analyzing the impact of water use efficiency caused by industrial structure transformation
In order to carry on the comparative analysis among the five provinces of northwest region of China, we obtain the counterpart of results and analysis of the five provinces in 2007
Summary
The optimization of the industrial structure and the transformation process directly influence the stability of national economic development [1,2,3,4]. Industrial transformation is the essential demand for economic prosperity, especially for less developed countries [5]. At the end of the twentieth century, western developed countries actively altered their national industrial structure, vigorously developed high technology industry to boost sustainable economic development [6]. Under the background of economic globalization, the optimization and upgrading of the industrial structure of developed countries would lead irresistibly to worldwide industrial structure changes. China should seize the opportunity to promote regional socioeconomic development via industrial transformation, especially in the Northwest region, which is characterized by scarcity of natural resources, fragility of ecological environment and lagged socioeconomic condition [7]
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