Identifying the driving factors of water consumption from water-energy-food nexus in the Yangtze River Delta region, China

• Published in: Environmental science and pollution research international Vol. 28; no. 35; pp. 48638 - 48655
• Main Authors: Yu, Yu, Zhang, Chenjun, Zhu, Weiwei, Park, Soohoon, Shi, Qinfen
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.09.2021; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Aquatic Pollution; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Divisia decomposition; Earth and Environmental Science; Economic development; Economic growth; Economics; Ecotoxicology; Energy conservation; Energy consumption; Energy industry; Energy technology; Energy utilization; Environment; Environmental Chemistry; Environmental Health; Environmental science; Food; Food consumption; Food production; Food technology; Regional development; Research Article; Rivers; Scale effect; Traditional foods; Waste Water Technology; Water conservation; Water consumption; Water Management; Water Pollution Control; Water shortages; Water use; Yangtze River Delta; China; Water use; Index decomposition; Water-energy-food nexus; Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region; Generalized Divisia index method
• ISSN: 0944-1344; 1614-7499
• DOI: 10.1007/s11356-021-14087-y

The current water shortage in China is critical. Moreover, the water shortage has become the main bottleneck hindering sustainable economic growth. Against the background of China’s dual control target of total water use and intensity, we choose the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region as a research object, which encompasses Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Anhui. Based on the perspective of water-energy-food nexus, we employ the generalized Divisia index method to decompose the change of water use into eight factors, regional economic scale effect, regional energy use scale effect, regional food production effect, regional water technology effect, regional energy technology effect, regional water-energy nexus effect, regional food-energy nexus effect, and regional water technology for food production effect, and analyze the contribution of each driver to identify the key drivers of total water use control. The results showed that the top four influencing factors are GDP, water intensity, energy consumption, and water-energy nexus in the YRD region. Regional economic scale is the first driving factor for increasing water use in the YRD region except for Zhejiang. Water intensity is the primary driving force of water-saving in Zhejiang. Energy consumption is the third driver of increasing water use in Jiangsu and Anhui. The effect of water-energy nexus is the third driving factor that affects the change of water use in Shanghai and Zhejiang. The authorities in the YRD region should vigorously develop water and energy utilization technologies to increase the water intensity and decrease energy consumption. The energy sector should decrease the water use to decrease the water-energy nexus which is also the main driving factor affecting the change of water use.