Search

Abstract Dietary-related risks rank top among all the health risks in many countries. The 2nd United Nations Sustainable Development Goal aims to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture. Yet whether improving nutritional quality also benefits the environment is still under-explored, particularly for developing countries. China is an interesting and important case because of its rapidly changing dietary patterns distinct from the western countries studied in the literature, sub-national level heterogeneity, socio-economic characteristics and lifestyles, as well as its considerable population. This paper evaluates greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, water consumption, and land appropriation resulting from shifting the Chinese population to healthy diets. We quantify the environmental impacts of individual diets using the latest available data of China Health and Nutrition Survey (2011), and compare them with the environmental impacts of suggested healthy dietary patterns in accordance with the 2016 Chinese Dietary Guidelines. If all Chinese would follow healthy diets rather than their current diets revealed in the survey, GHG emissions, water consumption, and land occupation would increase by 7.5% (63.9 Mt CO 2 e annually), 53.5% (510 billion m3), and 54.2% (1256 billion m2), respectively. Urban and high-income groups have higher diet-related environmental impacts but could achieve less additional environmental impacts when moving to healthier diets. These findings indicate an expense of increased GHG emissions, and consumption of water and land resources in improving health. They also highlight the need to focus on the effects of improved economic conditions and urbanization in reconciling environmental impacts and human nutritional adequacy. Highlights • Shifting to healthy diets in China leads to 7.5% lower GHG emissions. • Water consumption and land use increase by 53.5% and 54.2% because of the shift. • Urban dwellers and high-income groups deliver larger reductions in GHG emissions. • Increase of water consumption and land use is also smaller for these groups. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

Household consumption activities affect energy and water consumption directly and indirectly. Based on input-output modeling, this paper divided Chinese urban and rural residents into 12 groups, and investigated the impact of the consumption activities of residents with different levels of income on China's energy and water consumption from the perspective of consumers. Two main results were found. 1) In 2012, the energy consumption caused by the consumption activities of the highest-income urban residents accounted for 17.3% of the total energy consumption. For water resources, the per capita water withdrawal and consumption of the highest-income urban residents reached 481.21 m3 and 284.45 thousand m3, 6 times more than that of the low-income rural residents. 2) We identified medium and medium-high income urban residents as the key groups of residents. From the perspective of the industrial sectors, the key sectors for high energy consumption and water usage included the Electricity and Agricultural sectors, and we identified the Electricity sector as the key sector for the water and energy nexus of the residential sectors. The conclusions of this paper have pertinence for policymaking, and they provide an appropriate policy basis for guiding residents' energy and water consumption. • Energy and water usage caused by household consumption in China is investigated. • Chinese urban and rural residents in input-output table are divided into 12 groups. • Energy consumption caused by the highest-income urban residents accounted for 17.3%. • Water usage of the highest-income urban residents is 6 times more than that of the low-income rural residents. • Electricity sector as the key sector for the water and energy nexus of the residential sectors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Water is a critical issue in China for a variety of reasons. China is poor of water resources with 2300m3 of per capita availability, which is less than of the world average. This is exacerbated by regional differences; e.g. North China''s water availability is only about 271m3 of per capita value, which is only of the world''s average. Furthermore, pollution contributes to water scarcity and is a major source for diseases, particularly for the poor. The Ministry of Hydrology [1997. China''s Regional Water Bullets. Water Resource and Hydro-power Publishing House, Beijing, China] reports that about 65–80% of rivers in North China no longer support any economic activities. Previous studies have emphasized the amount of water withdrawn but rarely take water quality into consideration. The quality of the return flows usually changes; the water quality being lower than the water flows that entered the production process initially. It is especially important to measure the impacts of wastewater to the hydro-ecosystem. Thus, water consumption should not only account for the amount of water inputs but also the amount of water contaminated in the hydro-ecosystem by the discharged wastewater. In this paper we present a new accounting and analytical approach based on economic input–output modelling combined with a mass balanced hydrological model that links interactions in the economic system with interactions in the hydrological system. We thus follow the tradition of integrated economic–ecologic input–output modelling. Our hydro-economic accounting framework and analysis tool allows tracking water consumption on the input side, water pollution leaving the economic system and water flows passing through the hydrological system thus enabling us to deal with water resources of different qualities. Following this method, the results illustrate that North China requires 96% of its annual available water, including both water inputs for the economy and contaminated water that is ineligible for any uses. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

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]