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The conservation and efficient use of water resources are directly related to the sustainable and high-quality development in China. This paper regards the pilot policy of water-saving society construction as a quasi-natural experiment, and employs a differences-in-differences approach to evaluate the effectiveness of urban water-saving policies and exploit its drive mechanism by using the panel data of 263 cities in China from 2001 to 2016. Findings show that the pilot policy of water-saving society construction can achieve better water-saving effects, which can not only promote the reduction of urban water consumption in intensity and total amount, but also improve the efficiency of water resources utilization. And this policy has brought long-term dynamic effects on the urban water resources conservation. Heterogeneous effects exist in different types of cities, that is, the water-saving performance is more significant in cities with sufficient water resources and in central China. Besides, this paper finds that the impact of this water-saving policy on urban water resource conservation is mainly through two channels such as water resources infrastructure investment and water resources pricing. These findings provide useful inspirations for local governments to take effective economic measures to manage water resources. • Regard the pilot policy of water-saving society construction as a quasi-natural experiment. • Employ a differences-in-differences approach with the panel data of 263 cities in China from 2001 to 2016. • Evaluate the effectiveness of urban water-saving policies and exploit its drive mechanism. • Water-saving society construction can achieve better water-saving effects. • Water infrastructure investment and water pricing are important mechanisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To help minimize urban industrial water consumption and realize the goal of a water-saving society, this paper develops a method for the dynamic optimization of the input production factors in an urban industrial water supply model. A negative exponential curve describes the urban industrial water consumption per Yuan of urban industrial value added, the latter being described by a Gompertz curve. The product of the two describes the urban industrial water demand. The production function of urban industrial water supply is expressed by the fixed substitution proportional production function. Taking investment and labor input as control variables, the system goal is to balance of industrial water supply and demand. The time-varying model can not only solve the stable state problem for infinite time horizon, but also the transient problem for finite time horizon. Taking Jiangsu province in eastern China as an example, the applicability of the method was investigated under different parameter combinations. The simulation results show its effectiveness in these cases. In the earlier period, meeting balance requirements is easier using the straight-line capital depreciation method. In the later period, the fixed rate on declining balance method allows to meet the requirements more easily. In general, it is easier to achieve the goal by choosing a smaller and feasible weight matrix coefficient of the control variables. • The method helps to improve the production efficiency of investment and labor input for urban industrial water management. • The model can solve both stable and transient states of urban industrial water system. • The impact of two capital depreciation methods are simulated and compared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]