Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School, Tsinghua University, Shenzhen, 518055, China.
School of Public Administration, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, 310023, China.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2021 Nov;28(44):62461-62473. doi: 10.1007/s11356-021-15125-5. Epub 2021 Jul 1.
Food production requires a large amount of water. As a country facing a serious scarcity of per capita water resources and severe water pollution, China must explore the spatial distribution characteristics of its dietary water footprint. China is the world's largest developing country, and water consumption inevitably has increased with its economic development. It is essential to explore the factors influencing the water footprint and water conservation mechanisms. Based on China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) data, individual-level data of dietary water footprint and residents' socio-economic characteristics were obtained. The decision tree was applied to classify the dietary water footprint based on socio-economic factors, and multinomial logistic regression was then performed to investigate the influence of each factor. The results showed that all six selected socio-economic factors had a statistically significant impact on the dietary water footprint. Income and education level were positively related to the dietary water footprint; urban residents, males, and residents with a higher body mass index (BMI) consumed more dietary water than rural residents, females, and those with a lower BMI, respectively. Age exhibited an inverted U-shaped influence. Understanding the drivers and disparities of the water footprint of food consumption can support the development of policy for energy conservation, which can ultimately help achieve the goal of reducing water waste.
粮食生产需要大量的水。中国作为一个人均水资源严重短缺和水污染严重的国家，必须探索其饮食水足迹的空间分布特征。中国是世界上最大的发展中国家，随着经济发展，用水量不可避免地增加了。探索水足迹的影响因素和节水机制至关重要。基于中国健康与营养调查（CHNS）数据，获取了个体层面的饮食水足迹和居民社会经济特征数据。应用决策树根据社会经济因素对饮食水足迹进行分类，然后采用多项逻辑回归分析各因素的影响。结果表明，所有六个选定的社会经济因素对饮食水足迹都有统计学意义上的影响。收入和教育水平与饮食水足迹呈正相关；城镇居民、男性和 BMI 较高的居民比农村居民、女性和 BMI 较低的居民消耗更多的饮食水。年龄呈现出倒 U 型影响。了解食物消费水足迹的驱动因素和差异，可以支持节能政策的制定，最终有助于实现减少水资源浪费的目标。
