Zhang Yao, Liu Wenxin, Cai Yu, Khan Sufyan Ullah, Zhao Minjuan
College of Economics and Management, Northwest Agriculture and Forestry University, Yangling 712100, China.
Sci Total Environ. 2021 Mar 20;761:143275. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.143275. Epub 2020 Oct 29.
Decoupling water use from economic development is a fundamental strategy to improve environmental quality from the source. It can promote economic growth while reducing water use and water pollution. This article uses water footprint theory to calculate the relevant indicators of the water quantity footprint and water quality footprint of the Northwest arid region between 1997 and 2017. This paper not only comprehensively consider the impact rate of economic development on water resource consumption and water pollution, but also analyzes the coordination of water resource utilization efficiency and economic development from the perspective of water resource flow, and make up for the deficiencies of pure consideration of water resource consumption. The results of the study show that in the past 20 years, the water resources utilization and economic development in Northwest arid region of China has shown relatively decoupling and weak negative decoupling, and the decoupling index of water quantity and water quality with economic development are 0.3377 and 0.3156, respectively. It shows that the dependence of economic development on water resources is gradually decreasing. However, the water shortage remains serious, this also shows that the efficiency of water use has not improved. Only if economic development is decoupled from water quantity and water quality at the same time, we can achieve sustainable development of water use and economy. We also found that the proportion of agricultural production water is too large, industrial water consumption is declining, and the proportion of domestic water consumption is increasing. There is a problem of unreasonable utilization structure and it can be seen from the wastewater discharge data that the discharge of industrial wastewater is declining. The government needs to focus on the wastewater treatment, strengthen the awareness regarding of water conservation at same time, and use stepped pricing standards to reasonably control water use.
使水资源利用与经济发展脱钩是从源头上改善环境质量的一项基本战略。它可以在促进经济增长的同时减少水资源利用和水污染。本文运用水足迹理论计算了1997年至2017年西北干旱地区水量足迹和水质足迹的相关指标。本文不仅全面考虑了经济发展对水资源消耗和水污染的影响率，还从水资源流动的角度分析了水资源利用效率与经济发展的协调性，弥补了单纯考虑水资源消耗的不足。研究结果表明，在过去20年里，中国西北干旱地区的水资源利用与经济发展呈现出相对脱钩和弱负脱钩状态，水量和水质与经济发展的脱钩指数分别为0.3377和0.3156。这表明经济发展对水资源的依赖程度正在逐渐降低。然而，水资源短缺问题仍然严重，这也表明水资源利用效率并未提高。只有经济发展与水量和水质同时脱钩，才能实现水资源利用与经济的可持续发展。我们还发现，农业生产用水比例过大，工业用水量在下降，生活用水量比例在上升。存在利用结构不合理的问题，从废水排放数据可以看出工业废水排放量在下降。政府需要关注废水处理，同时加强节水意识，并采用阶梯定价标准合理控制用水。
