School of Economics and Management, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao, Shandong 266580, People's Republic of China; Institute for Energy Economics and Policy, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao, Shandong 266580, People's Republic of China.
School of Economics and Management, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao, Shandong 266580, People's Republic of China; Institute for Energy Economics and Policy, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao, Shandong 266580, People's Republic of China.
Sci Total Environ. 2020 Jul 15;726:138362. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.138362. Epub 2020 Apr 6.
Increasing water consumption from various economic activities has posed increasing challenges for the sustainability of developing countries. In particular, China is facing a sharp conflict between rapid economic development and water shortage. Evaluating the decoupling state between economic growth and water consumption and exploring the driving factors behind this could serve to develop strategy to moving to economic growth without water use growth. To this end, this work uses the Tapio decoupling and LMDI decomposition methods to evaluate the decoupling performance between China's water consumption and economic growth at the national and provincial levels, and six driving factors are decomposed, namely water consumption intensity, industrial structure, economic development, water resource utilization rate, water resource endowment and population size. Results show that: (1) Only two decoupling states, strong decoupling and weak decoupling, occurred at national level, and the decoupling index shows a decreasing trend. (2) 31 provinces showed only two states of strong decoupling and weak decoupling. More than 60% of the provinces showed strong decoupling after 2011, and the decoupling effect was significantly better than that of 2004-2011. (3) The effects of water consumption intensity and industrial structure drive the occurrence of decoupling. Economic level and population size have a positive incremental effect on water consumption. Finally, we propose policy recommendations such as developing water-saving technologies and optimizing industrial structure to promote water sustainability. The comprehensive methodology in this paper provides a theoretical reference for research in other countries or other environmental issues. Governments in various regions can formulate effective measures to achieve sustainable use of water resources, responding to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
从各种经济活动中增加用水量给发展中国家的可持续性带来了越来越大的挑战。特别是中国，正面临着经济快速发展与水资源短缺之间的尖锐冲突。评估经济增长与用水量之间的脱钩状态，并探讨背后的驱动因素，有助于制定战略，实现经济增长而不增加用水量。为此，本研究采用 Tapio 脱钩和 LMDI 分解方法，评估了中国国家和省级层面的用水量与经济增长之间的脱钩表现，并对六个驱动因素进行了分解，即用水量强度、产业结构、经济发展、水资源利用率、水资源丰度和人口规模。结果表明：（1）仅在国家层面出现了两种脱钩状态，即强脱钩和弱脱钩，脱钩指数呈下降趋势。（2）31 个省份均表现出强脱钩和弱脱钩两种状态。2011 年后，超过 60%的省份表现出强脱钩，脱钩效果明显好于 2004-2011 年。（3）用水量强度和产业结构的影响驱动了脱钩的发生。经济水平和人口规模对用水量具有正向增量效应。最后，提出了发展节水技术和优化产业结构等政策建议，以促进水资源的可持续利用。本文综合的方法为其他国家或其他环境问题的研究提供了理论参考。各地区政府可以制定有效的措施，以实现水资源的可持续利用，响应 2030 年可持续发展议程。
