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Compared with wood pulp, straw pulp and papermaking, because of lower cost and abundancy of raw material, has become an indispensable approach in paper industry of China. However, its further application is limited by huge water consumption and wastewater discharge. By employing substance flow analysis, this study built up an optimization model and a performance evaluation system of water saving for the water-use network of a straw pulp and paper enterprise, after identifying the problems in present water consumption. Accordingly, an optimization plan was proposed to combine man-made water circulation with natural water circulation system. Additionally, a contrast analysis between the present and optimized water use was conducted. At last, we applied the proposed optimization plan to one of the most important and largest enterprises of straw pulp and paper industry in China as an illustration. Theoretically, water consumption could be reduced by 75.4 % without wastewater discharge after optimization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paper as a consumer product offers a undisputed benefits to human society, and it has been proven to be critical in driving most sensitive needs of mankind—principally in areas of security, education, sanitation, and communication—and thus has been produced and consumed worldwide. Its sustainable production and usage is one topic that has featured prominently in many discussion fronts and more often than not ends with recommendations for an alternative source of raw material, improvement in production procedures, and ecological concerns. Paper use is an ecological concern that has triggered many paper intervention actions around the world such as the Paper Task Force in USA, Sustainable Paper Alliance in China, and Paper and Beyond in Europe. In Nigeria, however, challenges associated with paper production, consumption, and economic prospects have not been adequately tackled. This is conspicuously evident in the huge volume of paper products imported annually into the country as a result of unsustainable local production. The cumulative impact of these issues reflect negatively on the Nigeria's paper industry and spread indirectly to the entire country's economy in terms of high capital freight spent on importation, volatile product price, and loss of employment opportunities. This work sought to review the challenges and opportunities associated with raw material sources, energy and water consumption, environmental pollution, paper consumption, and disposal of used paper products in Nigeria. The current review also advocated for wastepaper as a variant of raw material with a sustainable potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Papermaking is a water intensive industry. The growth of paper demand will further intensify the need of fresh water resources. Papermaking involves complex processing routes. Previous investigations of water consumption in papermaking industry have focused primarily on key processes and pathways, ignoring the impacts of many intermediate and inter-related processes in paper production cycles and there underestimating the sustainability impacts. Herein, the results of a life cycle analysis of water consumption for papermaking industry in China using an extensive system boundary that includes the water embedded in intermediate processing are presented. The results show the life cycle water consumption and water saving potentials for different papermaking pathways. The advocacy of "forest pulp and paper integration" may have few practical contribution to reducing water consumption due to the low indirect water consumption of raw materials and energy for transportation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With a huge capital and labor input influx, inter-basin water transfer (IBWT) projects have been shown to effectively mitigate water stress and ensure the water demand for social and economic development in the receiving area. Whether they have promoted the improvement of regional water use efficiency (WUE) is crucial for sustainable management of regional water resources. Targeting the South-to-North Water Transfer Project (SNWTP), the largest and most ambitious inter-basin water transfer project in China, this study establishes quantitatively econometric models to analyze the impact of different water diversion projects, specifically the eastern route of the SNWTP (ER-SNWTP), middle route of the SNWTP (MR-SNWTP), and diversion from the main stream of the Yellow River (DYR), on the regional water consumption per unit of GDP; regional water stress, water use structure, economic structure, and urbanization level are used as control variables in different types of cities in the Yellow River Basin, and some intriguing results are found. While the overall water transfer project demonstrates a positive impact on water use efficiency, the effects of the three water transfer measures vary significantly. The ER-SNWTP does not exhibit a notable positive effect on regional water use efficiency, whereas the MR-SNWTP demonstrates a significant positive impact. Interestingly, the DYR has a notable negative influence on water use efficiency in developed cities. The water use structure, shaped by the pricing, scale, and policies of different projects, emerges as a pivotal factor in explaining these differences. Finally, this paper suggests that the impact of water transfer projects on the improvement of regional water use efficiency be viewed from a more comprehensive and developmental perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The economic operation of hydropower stations has the potential to increase water use efficiency. However, there are some challenges, such as the fixed and unchangeable flow characteristic curve of the hydraulic turbines, and the large number of variables in optimal load distribution, which limit the progress of research. In this paper, we propose a new optimal method of the economic operation of hydropower stations based on improved Long Short-Term Memory neural network (I-LSTM) and Random Forest (RF) algorithm. Firstly, in order to accurately estimate the water consumption, the LSTM model's hyperparameters are optimized using improved particle swarm optimization, and the I-LSTM method is proposed to fit the flow characteristic curve of the hydraulic turbines. Secondly, the Random Forest machine learning algorithm is introduced to establish a load-distribution model with its powerful feature extraction and learning ability. To improve the accuracy of the load-distribution model, we use the K-means algorithm to cluster the historical data and optimize the parameters of the Random Forest model. A Hydropower Station in China is selected for a case study. It is shown that (1) the I-LSTM method fits the operating characteristics under various working conditions and actual operating characteristics of hydraulic turbines, ensuring that they are closest to the actual operating state; (2) the I-LSTM method is compared with Support Vector Machine (SVM), Extreme Learning Machine (ELM) and Long Short-Term Memory neural network (LSTM). The prediction results of SVM have a large error, but compared with ELM and LSTM, MSE is reduced by about 46% and 38% respectively. MAE is reduced by about 25% and 21%, respectively. RMSE is reduced by about 27% and 24%, respectively; (3) the RF algorithm performs better than the traditional dynamic programming algorithm in load distribution. With the passage of time and the increase in training samples, the prediction accuracy of the Random Forest model has steadily improved, which helps to achieve optimal operation of the units, reducing their average total water consumption by 1.24%. This study provides strong support for the application of intelligent low-consumption optimization strategies in hydropower fields, which can bring higher economic benefits and resource savings to renewable energy production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region in China is experiencing a serious ecological water scarcity problem in the context of climate warming and drying. There is an urgent need for practical adaptation measures to cope with the adverse impacts of climate change and provide a scientific basis for urban water supply planning, water resource management, and policy formulation. Urban ecological water can maintain the structure and function of urban ecosystems, both as an environmental element and as a resource. Current research lacks quantitative analysis of the impact of regional meteorological factors on ecological water use at the small and medium scales. Based on the meteorological data and statistical data of water resources in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei (BTH) region, this paper analyzed the trend of climate change and established an ecological climatic water model using gray correlation analysis, polynomial simulation, and singular spectrum analysis to predict the ecological water consumption. And, we assessed the climatic sensitivity of ecological water use and estimated the future ecological climatic water use in the BTH region based on four climate scenarios' data. The results showed that the average multi-year temperature was 13.2 °C with a clear upward trend from 1991 to 2020 in the BTH region. The multi-year average precipitation was 517.1 mm, with a clear shift in the period of abundance and desiccation. Ecological climatic water modeling showed that a 1 °C increase in temperature will increase ecological water use by 0.73 × 108 m3~1.09 × 108 m3 in the BTH region; for a 100 mm increase in precipitation, ecological water use will decrease by 0.49 × 108 m3~0.88 × 108 m3; under the four climate scenarios of SSP1–2.6, SSP2–4.5, SSP3–7.0, and SSP5–8.5, the regional ecological climatic water use will be 5.14 × 108 m3, 6.64 × 108 m3, 7.82 × 108 m3, and 9.06 × 108 m3 in 2035, respectively; and in 2050, the ecological climatic water use will be 8.16 × 108 m3, 9.75 × 108 m3, 10.71 × 108 m3, and 12.41 × 108 m3, respectively. The methodology and results of this study will support the quantification of climate change impacts on ecological water use in the BTH region and serve as a theoretical basis for future research on ecological water use adaptation to climate change. This study can provide a basis for the development of the overall planning of urban ecological water supply, and at the same time, it can lay a foundation for the study of measures to adapt to climate change by ecological water use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Due to the increasingly serious water shortage in China, water conservation becomes more and more important. This paper analyzes the amount of water consumption in every link of the goods supply to explore the water conservation feasibility in every link. This paper establishes an EIO-LCA model based on the life cycle assessment method for water consumption from supply chains in various sectors, and decomposes the water footprint of the inter-sector supply chain into six levels and calculates the water consumption at each level. The results show that the total water footprint of China's supply chain increases by 6.5% from 2007 to 2017; industrial sector is the core sector for indirect water footprint consumption. China is an importing country of virtual water, imported intermediate products are the main source of imported virtual water and re-exported products account for an increasing proportion of exported virtual water. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To achieve the transformation of water rights institution in China from the administrative management to the property rights institution, it is of high significance to discuss the principle of rights confirmation, institution connection, and change. In this paper, we present the process, result, experience, and problems of the authors' involvement in water rights confirmation and registration in Delingha as the methods designer of water rights confirmation. The conclusions of this paper follow: (1) Equity must be the priority while considering the principles of water rights confirmation. Complying and verifying the results of historical water distribution, strengthening public participation, and selecting persuasive and scientific indicators are the main components that are embodied in the concept of equity. (2) Water rights confirmation is to recognize and revise the distribution result of the old institution. Macroscopically, based on the administrative upper limits set by the "Three Red Lines" and ecologically sustainable requirements, the dual-control method of "matching water use and the Three Red Lines" and "matching water consumption and available water resources" was used to control the total distribution of water rights. From a microscopic point of view, the water abstraction permit was the core indicator of water rights confirmation, after checking with other data. (3) The institutional logic, the responsibilities and roles of the government, and the intellection of water users have changed after the confirmation of water rights. Registration is the key to distinguishing water rights from the traditional administrative institution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2020, China pledged to peak its carbon emission before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. These ambitious carbon targets will inevitably boost the development of renewable energy generation, which has advantages from energy and water perspectives but disadvantages from land use perspective. Therefore, it is necessary to discuss the interaction among renewable energy development, water consumption as well as land use in the power sector, and determine a reasonable power-related land use range for the land administration in China. In this research, a series of multi-period, multi-regional power system optimization models with different objective functions and constraints are established to study the interrelationship among renewable energy development, water consumption, and land use in the coverage area of China Southern Power Grid from 2018 to 2030, and provide a reasonable land use range for the power sector in this region in 2030. Based on the above calculation results, the development of renewable energy promoted by energy and water policies will increase the land use of power sector under a cost objective function, and the minimum land area demand for this power system in 2030 considering energy and water policies is 24785.14 km2. What is more, according to the influence of land use constraint on the total cost of power sector from 2018 to 2030, this paper selected the increase ratio from 5 to 16% compared with the minimum land area demand as the reasonable land use range. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on the theory of Cobb-Douglas production function, this paper introduces the Socio- Environmental Indicator, industrial blue water footprint and industrial grey water footprint to improve the traditional input-output indicator system, used the Epsilon-Based Measure (EBM) models, to measure green efficiency of industrial water resource (GEIWR) based on provincial panel data from 2004 to 2016 in China, and then applied Tobit model to explore the mechanism. First, the results show that distinct differences in the efficiency from different provinces in China. The efficiency from the eastern regions is higher than that in other regions. Then, some western provinces have a high efficiency with a shortage of water but effective waste water regulation, which indicates that the effective efficiency only symbolizes the region's optimal input-output allocation. In particular, the industrial water-saving potential showed a declining trend but there is still much room for improvement of provinces in central China, such as Hubei, Sichuan and Hunan. Lastly, the environmental regulation, technological progress, regional characteristics, industrial structure, foreign capital utilization and water resource consumption have certain impacts on the efficiency. This paper could be helpful in providing a reference for the evaluation of green efficiency of industrial water resource. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whether financial agglomeration is conducive to improving the green efficiency of water resources is of great significance for China to realize water saving and consumption reduction, and green sustainable development. Based on the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 2006 to 2017, this paper uses the SBM model with undesirable output to measure the green efficiency of water resources in China and empirically examines the impact of financial agglomeration on the green efficiency of water resources. The results show that the green efficiency of water resources in China presents the "N" type fluctuation characteristic, and the overall trend is increasing. The mean value of green efficiency of water resources in China fluctuates around 0.6, which is at a medium level, and there is still a large room for improvement. Secondly, there are obvious spatial differences in China's green efficiency of water resources, showing a gradient of "Eastern>Central>Western." Thirdly, at the national level, financial agglomeration has a significant positive impact on the green efficiency of water resources, and there is an inverted "U"-shaped relationship between financial agglomeration and green efficiency of water resources. Fourthly, at the regional level, the impact of financial agglomeration on green efficiency of water resources has significant regional differences. Finally, based on the above conclusions, specific proposals for financial agglomeration to improve the green efficiency of water resources are put forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The soybean in China northeastern black soil has low yield, low use efficiency of water and fertilizer, which has overly high amount of nitrogen residual. Three different drip irrigation mode amount (300 mm, 350 mm, and 400 mm) and five different amount of nitrogen was designed in this paper to study the influence of water and nitrogen controlling to the water and fertilizer use efficiency and the amount of nitrogen residual under drip irrigation mode. According to our experiment results, the water consumption of soybean increased with the growth of drip irrigation mode amount, and in all treatment, soybean consumed the most amount of water at seed filling period. There is no significant difference in water consumption amount between each treatment during seedling period, but there were significant differences in the water consumption of soybean at branching period, flowering and pod period, and seed filling period. Nitrogen fertilizer alone does not have significant influence on soybean water, but the interaction between nitrogen fertilizer and soybean had significant difference in water consumption amount. The yield reached the biggest amount of 3250 kg/hm² when nitrogen drip amount was 400 mm, and nitrogen application rate was 81 kg/hm². The yield increased with the growth of irrigation amount, but the yield increase rate became slow. When the nitrogen application amount was at a low level, there was a positive interaction between water and nitrogen, which showed a synergistic acceleration effect. When the nitrogen application rate was at a high level, there was a negative interaction between water and nitrogen. When the drip irrigation mode amount was 350 mm and the nitrogen application rate was 81 kg/hm2, the WUE was the highest, which was 0.60 kg/m3. In a certain range of nitrogen application, increasing irrigation amount can promote WUE, while the amount was over a certain range, WUE decreased. After harvest, the amount of nitrate nitrogen residual in the 0-100 cm soil varied greatly among different nitrogen fertilizer treatments, and the nitrogen fertilizer application amount was greater, the nitrogen residual was greater. In the W3N3 treatment which has the highest yield, the yield was at 42 kg/hm2 less than the W3N4 treatment at the highest amount of nitrate nitrogen residual, which is a reduction of 35.78%. The results showed that proper combination of water and nitrogen application could reduce nitrogen residual in soil after harvest. The research results can provide theoretical basis and technical support for the efficient utilization of water and fertilizer resources in the black soil region located in northeastern China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of phosphoric acid (H3PO4) in pressurized aqueous solution on the dehydration of CaSO4·2H2O to form α-hemihydrate gypsum (α-HH) phase and the regulation of crystal shape were studied in this paper in order to provide guidance for the low-cost and high-value utilization of phosphogypsum. The results showed that H3PO4 can significantly accelerate the formation rate of the α-HH phase and that it did not participate in the formation of the α-HH phase in the form of eutectic phosphorus during crystalline phase transformation. In terms of crystal shape regulation, H3PO4 can impact the effect of a citric acid crystal regulator on α-HH crystal shape regulation. The more H3PO4 added, the greater the aspect ratio of α-HH. Accordingly, the water consumption and 2 h dry compressive strength of α-HH products were gradually increased and decreased with an increase in H3PO4 content, respectively. Despite this, the compressive strength of α-HH can still meet the requirements of the α20 grade in JC/T 2038-2010 "α High Strength Gypsum" in China when the H3PO4 content was limited to less than 0.4%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's living arrangement has changed as the economy grows and society makes progress. More and more people prefer to live alone. In 2018, a total of 240 million people chose to live alone in China, with an annual growth of 0.53% per year. How will the growing number of people living alone affect the resources consumption and the ecological environment? Based on the data from 1998 to 2017 at provincial level, this paper selects domestic water and electricity consumption to represent resources consumption, and household garbage generation to represent ecological environment, taking the proportion of single-person households in the total households as the explanatory variable and age, education, and household appliances as the control variables. This paper aims to apply dynamic panel models to analyze the impact of solitary population on resources consumption (water and electricity resources as representatives) and on waste generation. The results show that (1) people living alone consume more resources and generate more garbage, while household waste is influenced most, followed by household electricity consumption and household water consumption, (2) positive relations between age and resources consumption and waste generation have been identified, and (3) the energy-saving technology of home appliances is conducive to resources conservation and emission reduction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a water-scarce country and the world's largest trader of industrial products, China's industrial virtual water (VW) flow may exacerbate its water scarcity problem. Thus, industrial VW flows' spatial and temporal evolution in international trade should be analyzed, and influencing factors must be identified. This study developed the multiregional input–output (MRIO) model, combined with the Leontief inverse matrix, to measure and decompose the industrial VW flows between China and other economies from 2000 to 2014. This extended MRIO model considers intermediate production water consumption and indirect water use, which technically distinguishes the sources of pressure on water use more accurately, thus enabling a new elaboration of the composition of China's industrial water use. Then, the evolution of China's industrial VW trade is analyzed spatiotemporally, and the structural decomposition analysis (SDA) method is invoked to identify the endogenous drivers further. The results indicate the following. (1) China was a net exporter of industrial VW trade. The main VW export sectors in China were the manufacture of textiles and wearing apparel, paper products, and chemical products, which had the characteristics of high water consumption, high pollution, and low added value, respectively. (2) The net exports of industrial VW from China mainly went to the US, EU, ROW (rest of the world), and Japan. China's VW exports to the US and Japan are declining, while exports to the EU and Russia are increasing. (3) The decrease in the water-use coefficient in all industrial sectors in China was the most critical reason for inhibiting the increase in the country's industrial VW exports. The export structure effect of intermediate products, product structure effect of foreign final demand, and scale effect of foreign final demand were the primary reasons for the rise in VW exports, but all gradually diminished. Moreover, the structural effects of China on the use of domestic intermediate products had a significant positive effect on the increase in VW exports. In contrast, those of foreign products had an extremely weak effect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The subtropical forests in China play a pivotal part in the global and regional carbon–water cycle and in regulating the climate. Ecosystem water-use efficiency (WUE) is a crucial index for understanding the trade-off between ecosystem carbon gain and water consumption. However, the underlying mechanisms of the WUE in forest ecosystems, especially the different subtropical forests, have remained unclear. In this paper, we developed a simple framework for estimating forest WUE and revealing the underlying mechanisms of forest WUE changes via a series of numerical experiments. Validated by measured WUE, the simulated WUE from our developed WUE framework showed a good performance. In addition, we found that the subtropical forest WUE experienced a significant increasing trend during 2001–2018, especially in evergreen and deciduous broadleaf forests where the increasing rate was greatest (0.027 gC kg−1 H2O year−1, p < 0.001). Further analysis indicated that the atmospheric CO2 concentration and vapor pressure deficits (VPD), rather than leaf area index (LAI), were the dominant drivers leading to the subtropical forest WUE changes. When summed for the whole subtropical forests, CO2 and VPD had an almost equal spatial impact on annual WUE change trends and accounted for 45.3% and 49.1% of the whole study area, respectively. This suggests that future forest management aiming to increase forest carbon uptake and protect water resources needs to pay more attention to the long-term impacts of climate change on forest WUE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The shortage of urban water caused by CCS retrofitting over coal-fired power plants has become an emerging issue, especially in China where water resources are scarce. In this study, we quantified the impact of CCS retrofitting on water resources and analyzed the increased water pressures due to CCS retrofits in 234 cities of China. We identified 54 cities with 165 power plants that would face water pressure due to CCS retrofitting for achieving 2 °C targets. The results show that the average water withdrawal and water consumption of power plants in 234 cities would increase by 1.63 times and 1.49 times, respectively, involving 480 million people in China. The ratio of freshwater withdrawal to available water (WTA) and the ratio of freshwater consumption to available water (CTA) at the city-level increased by 0.2 and 0.06 under 2 °C constraints respectively, involving a population of 84 million people. Moreover, CO2-EWR technology does not provide relief from urban water stress. This paper assesses the water demand for carbon capture technologies and provides a basis for siting future large-scale deployment of carbon capture technologies in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There are increasing concerns on the impact of population growth on sustainable use of water resources utilization. In this context, this paper aims to develop a conceptual framework for understanding the human-water system from the contradiction and co-evolutionary perspective. In this paper, the three contradiction relationships including those of human-water system, climate change and war condition, productive forces and production relations are analyzed by choosing six proxy indicators, and a set of historical data during 722 B.C.-1911 A.D., in China is used as the case study. Human and water is a co-evolution system as the coefficient of determination (R) between population and water governance activities is 0.9. Advanced productive forces and production relations play an important role in promoting population growth and water governance activities evidenced by high R between any two of them. Generally, the co-evolutionary process of these three contradictions can be divided into three stages: slow development, moderate development and fast development. The conceptual framework developed in this study can be used to analyze the evolution of similar human-water systems in the world. Moreover, further research should be done through the simulation of the form and cycles of the three contradiction relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To understand the change in irrigation water requirement (IWR) in China under the changing climate conditions and grain planting structures, this paper focused on rice, wheat and maize and analyzed the IWR change in each county under the background of climate change and the adjustment of planting structure by means of the China Agro-Ecological Zones (China-AEZ) model. The results show that: (1) Climate change causes the increase of IWR. Compared with the 1961–1990 period, the average IWR of counties in China increased by 9.31 mm and 16.50% under the climate conditions of the 1981–2010 period. Regionally, the water consumption effect of climate change is stronger in water-poor areas than in water-rich areas. (2) Planting structure change causes the decrease of IWR. Compared with 1990, under the planting structure in 2014, the average IWR of counties in China decreased by 6.61 mm and 11.41%. Regionally, the water-saving effect of the change in planting structure in the north is stronger than that in the south. (3) With the change in climate conditions and planting structure, the average IWR of counties in China first increased and then decreased, with an overall increase of 2.06 mm and 3.56%. Regionally, the IWR in most parts of the country has shown a decreasing trend, while the IWR in northwestern and north China, where water resources are relatively scarce, has increased significantly. (4) Nationally, the change in IWR is dominated by climate change, and the overall trend is in the direction of water consumption. Therefore, adjusting the crop planting structure is a promising way to save irrigation water. To adapt to the pressures on water resources caused by climate change, the proportion of crops with water-saving advantages should be increased in the corresponding areas to achieve regional water savings. In northwest China, which mainly relies on irrigation water, many crops with low IWR should be planted, such as wheat and maize, while the planting proportion of rice should be reduced; furthermore, the planting proportion of wheat should be reduced, and the planting proportion of maize should be increased in north China. Finally, rice with high IWR should be more localized in central, southern and northeastern China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the completion of first‐phase projects on the eastern and middle routes of the South‐to‐North Water Diversion (SNWD), the design and implementation of water pricing mechanism have become the key factors that affect the project operation. This paper launches the evaluation of implementation effect on the water price policy of the SNWD built projects in 2018 by coordinating the consumption of transfer water, allocation of receiving‐areas' water resources, collection of water fee for transfer water, as well as the implementation of local water price policies, which mainly exerted a comprehensive and interactive influence on the water price policy. Based on a series of data statistics and analysis, the usage of water transferred from the Yangtze River, improvement of regional water resources allocation, collection of water fee, and the implementation results of local water price policies were systematically analyzed. The main conclusions and corresponding suggestions were put forward to provide useful references on the formulation of water price policies for the design, optimization, and adjustment of the subsequent water pricing mechanism in the SNWD project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To promote sustainable water resource management, the Chinese government has enacted restrictive policies and targets in terms of total water usage, water intensity, and pollution emissions. While data envelopment analysis (DEA) has been extensively adopted in assessing industrial water resource systems, previous studies have not integrated the realistic constraints on total water consumption and total pollution emissions into a unified framework. This paper examines the system as a two-stage process of water use (WU) and water pollution abatement (WPA), where fixed-sum constraints are imposed on both water consumption and pollution emissions. To address such two-stage DMUs with fixed-sum inputs and fixed-sum outputs, we propose a novel two-stage fixed-sum DEA approach and apply it to evaluate the performance of industrial WU-WPA systems for 29 provinces in China from 2014 to 2018. The results are as follows. From the overall efficiency perspective, the industrial WU-WPA system in China is overall efficient, but provincial overall efficiency polarizes with 19 provinces evaluated as overall inefficient. From a time perspective, overall efficiency shows an increasing then decreasing or descending trend nationally and across the 16 provinces; on the national average, WPA efficiency shows an increasing and then decreasing trend, while WU efficiency demonstrates consistent improvement over time and surpasses WPA efficiency after 2016. In terms of the four areas, regional disparities in the overall efficiencies are converging; for both the whole system and the sub-stage, the eastern area performs the best, followed by the western, northeastern, and central areas. Based on the empirical results, suggestions for improving industrial water resource management are given at the national, regional, and provincial perspectives respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper develops a dual sectors dynamic equilibrium model and introduces agricultural energy consumption and agricultural water consumption in a growth model that tested by using a panel data set from 2004 to 2016 in China. It presents a theoretical prediction on the interactions between agricultural energy consumption, agricultural water consumption, and food yield. Consistent with this prediction, agricultural electricity consumption and agricultural water consumption by themselves appear to have significant effects on food yield. The fixed-effects models verify that agricultural electricity consumption, agricultural water consumption, and food yield have long-run equilibrium relationships. The results of weather-based robustness checks reveal that food yield is positively correlated with agricultural electricity consumption. Also consistent with theory, agricultural water consumption is positively associated with food yield. These results are generally stable and hold with tests of panel data unit roots, with alternative estimation strategies, and with or without controlling for covariates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the largest inland river basin in China, the Tarim River Basin is an important energy base and a key cotton-producing area in China. Therefore, the harmonious development of water resources, energy resources and cotton resources in the Tarim River Basin is a lifeline for stable quality and efficient development in this region. In this paper, the water–energy–cotton system of the Tarim River Basin is constructed and the weight of each index in the system is determined by using the entropy method. On this basis, the comprehensive development index of each subsystem and the water–energy–cotton system is calculated to measure the comprehensive development level of each system. Then, the coupling relationship between the three resources is quantitatively analyzed by using the coupling coordination degree model, and the mutual influence and strength of interaction between each system are calculated. Finally, a fractional regression model is established to analyze the factors affecting the coordinated development of the water–energy–cotton system in the Tarim River Basin. The results show that the comprehensive development index of the Tarim River Basin fluctuates obviously and the comprehensive development level of water resource systems is higher than that of the cotton resource and energy resource systems, and there are regional differences between each subsystem and the comprehensive development index of water–energy–cotton system. The coupling coordination degree of the basin is the primary coordination on the whole; however, there are significant differences in the coupling coordination degree of each region. In terms of influencing factors, the area of soil erosion treatment and water consumption in ecological environments both play a positive role in promoting the coupling coordination degree, and population size and GDP will hinder the development of the coupling coordination degree to a certain extent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Farmland landscape fragmentation is an important problem affecting the agricultural modernization process in China. However, farmland landscape fragmentation leads to land being wasted and increases management costs, particularly in the dryland's oasis regions. Therefore, investigating the impact of farmland landscape fragmentation on agricultural irrigation is of great significance in developing oasis agriculture. This paper used the landscape quantitative index (DIVISION), the moving window method, and gradient analysis methods to study the temporal and spatial pattern changes in farmland fragmentation in the Hotan Oasis. Additionally, the impact of fragmentation on irrigation in the oasis was elaborated upon by exploring the relationship between evapotranspiration and its components in farmland fragmentation. The results showed that the farmland area of the Hotan Oasis increased from 1546.19 km2 in 2000 to 2068.23 km2 in 2020, and farmland landscape fragmentation increased with the expansion of the Hotan Oasis. In addition, a significant relationship between farmland fragmentation and evapotranspiration and its components was evident. A lower DIVISION value corresponded to a higher ET value, a lower ETs/ETc ratio, and a higher water use efficiency. When the total farmland area is assumed to remain unchanged, the irrigation water consumption is reduced by 4.82 × 108 m3 according to the size and proportion of arable land with the lowest degree of fragmentation (L1, division value of 0.46). In addition, with the increase in the proportion of farmland, the scale of oasis decreases by 2431.56 km2 for the reduction in field roads, shelterbelt, and bare land. These findings suggest that solving the problem of farmland fragmentation can effectively reduce irrigation water consumption, realize the internal expansion of the oasis through intensive land use, and relieve the pressure of the external expansion of the oasis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrial water consumption is a major component of the total regional water consumption. Accurate and scientific prediction of industrial water consumption is an essential guide to the rational use of natural resources. In this paper, we proposed a combined model of CEEMD (collective empirical modal decomposition) and ARIMA (autoregressive integrated moving average) for forecasting industrial water consumption to establish an accurate and efficient forecasting model, because of the poor generalization ability of most current industrial water consumption forecasting models. The influencing factors of industrial water consumption are complex, and the data are non-stationary. "Decomposition-prediction-reconstruction" is one of the significant methods for forecasting time series data, and the data decomposition has a suppressive influence on the modal mixing problem in the EMD decomposition procedure. Based on the smoothing ability of CEEMD for non-smooth signals and the better adaptation of the autoregressive moving average prediction model (ARIMA), a combined CEEMD-ARIMA model was established for industrial water consumption forecasting. This study was conducted for industrial water consumption in Henan Province in central China. The results suggest the combined CEEMD-ARIMA model has a favorable forecasting effect, with an average relative percentage error of 1.96%, and mean square error (MSE) of 0.35, a Nash efficiency coefficient (NSE) of 0.95, a prediction pass rate of 100%, and a better prediction accuracy than the ARIMA model and the combined EEMD-ARIMA model. It provides an effective prediction method for the prediction of industrial water consumption and has good application prospects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Temporal and spatial variations in river water quality and the factors influencing such variations are important basis and prerequisites for identifying pollution sources and improving river water environment. Monthly data for 22 indicators at 485 surface water quality (SWQ) monitoring sites (46,560 groups) in the Huaihe River Basin (HRB) from 2011 to 2018 were analyzed. This paper assessed temporal and spatial changes in SWQ in the HRB and identified the main factors influencing the changes and each factor's contribution to the changes. The five-day biological oxygen demand, permanganate index, fluoride, ammonium nitrogen, and total phosphorus were the main pollutants. Spatial cluster analysis indicated that the HRB could be divided by SWQ into areas I–IV from light to heavy pollution. Areas I and IV were nitrogen and phosphorus nutrients pollution, and areas II and III were heavy metals and organic pollution. Area IV (poor SWQ) locates mainly north of the Huaihe mainstream with annual average rainfall ≤ 640 mm. SWQ in the HRB has been improving for two decades, with an inflection point in 2015 between 2011 and 2018, and rainfall change is an important factor for the inflection point. The urbanization rate, industrial water consumption, and rainfall were the key factors influencing SWQ changes in the watershed with significant hydrological zonation, with urbanization rate and rainfall increased, industrial water consumption decreased, the SWQ was gradually improved. The key factors contributing to SWQ changes in the future will be the sewage treatment rate and rainfall changes caused by natural variations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water use efficiency ( W U E ) is one of the most widely used indicators in agricultural water management. Although this indicator has obvious advantages, it is limited to measuring the relationship between crop yield and corresponding water use. In recent years, many researchers have noted that understanding the economic efficiency of water use ( E E W U ) could have great water-saving potential, while it has been poorly investigated with respect to China's agricultural water management. This paper assesses E E W U through a household farmer-level survey in the piedmont region of North China. First, E E W U of crops are estimated based on agricultural water consumption (including irrigation water and effective precipitation) and profit (including gross profit and net profit); Second, the impact of monthly price changes in 2019 and annual price changes in 2014–2019 on E E W U is analysed. Main conclusions are as follows: (1) E E W U values of cash crops such as apple and cauliflower are much higher than those of grain crops such as wheat and maize; (2) For different crops, the median economic efficiency of irrigation water ( E E W i U ) and total water ( E E W t U ) range from 31.71 to 99.54 ¥/m3 and 11.31 to 44.05 ¥/m3, respectively; (3) The multi-year average E E W i U and E E W t U ranged from 4.75 to 63.99 ¥/m3 and from 2.67 to 31.71 ¥/m3, respectively. Economic efficiency of water use shows a slightly downward trend in the period of study, which would contradict the trend towards the use of more water-efficient technologies and shows an even larger margin of improvement in the domain of agricultural water efficiency. The results provide a powerful reference for the management of agricultural water use through economic leverage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The high distribution of water resources among provinces in China considerably impacts the development of society and economy in each region. Thus, it is of great practical significance to examine the water resources carrying capacity (WRCC) of each Chinese province. This paper constructs a comprehensive evaluation index system for the WRCC from two aspects: pressure and support. First, it analyzes dynamic changes in the WRCC of 31 Chinese provinces in China by using the decoupling model (DM). Second, it analyzes the key factors that hinder the improvement of WRCC by using the obstacle degree model (ODM). The study found that there are significant inter-provincial differences in China's WRCC. Provinces with greater natural water resources have a higher WRCC. Under the condition of similar natural water resources, WRCC in economically developed provinces is higher. From 2008 to 2015, China's overall WRCC has been increasing. Moreover, three-fifth of China's provinces can be classified as Upward-type (Upward I, Upward II, and Upward III) provinces and their WRCC is in a good state by considering the decoupling type and trend of WRCC in two periods together. The main obstacle factors hindering the improvement of the WRCC are total water resources ( X 1 ), water supply per capita ( X 2 ), total water supply ( X 3 ), forest cover rate ( X 9 ), soil erosion control area ( X 10 ), water consumption saving ( X 12 ), and water usage penetration rate ( X 22 ). This study can provide a scientific basis for understanding change trend of WRCC in Chinese provinces and improve their WRCC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is facing severe pressure on its water resources and water environments. Calculating the industrial water efficiency of each province is an important index for the central government to evaluate local governments. In the traditional water resources evaluation index, the industrial water use efficiency and pollutant discharge are evaluated separately. In this paper, we collected industrial input data, output data and pollutant discharge data with a four-stage data envelopment analysis to calculate China's industrial water use efficiency with and without considering pollutant discharge, and then analyzed the factors influencing the industrial water use efficiency. The results show that the eastern coastal provinces of China have the highest water use efficiency and are less affected by pollutant discharge than other provinces. The industrial water use efficiency of the central and western provinces is lower than that of the other provinces, and the industrial water use efficiency in the central provinces is greatly affected by pollutant discharge. Factor endowment, economic development level, scientific and technological progress, industrial structure, proportion of foreign investment, water consumption per 10000 yuan of value-added by industry, industrial sewage treatment capacity and educational investment have a significant influence on the industrial water use efficiency of China. We suggest that the government strengthen the construction of sewage plants and other related infrastructure in central provinces when conducting the industrial transfer of heavy polluting enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global water resources are constantly flowing in the process of industrial trade, and changes in water resource production and consumption demand not only affect the total consumption and flow pattern of water resources but also the stable development of the economic system. How to achieve the goals of water conservation and the spatial balance of water resources while promoting social and economic stability and sustainable development has become an important prerequisite for the coordination and sustainable development of water resources and economic systems. Therefore, this paper starts with the industrial correlation effect of the downstream consumption side of the industrial linkage path, and uses the multi-regional input–output model, power-of-pull approach and industrial correlation effect model to deeply analyze the important path of the coordinated and sustainable development of China's water resources and economic system. The results show that: The relevant sectors of industry and service always have a stable and low pull index on the water consumption end, which had a small pulling effect on the water production end. Moreover, the flow of the industrial virtual water trade linkage path did not increase when total economic output value increased, making it an important development industry for the coordinated development of water resources and economic systems. Additionally, comparing the virtual water flow and flow direction of the industrial linkage path with the industry's total economic and trade output value, it is found that the unreasonable industrial pulling effect and pushing effect have become one of the important obstacles affecting the spatial balance of water resources and coordinated economic development of China. Therefore, the regulation of virtual water trade pattern can not only be judged from the flow of the link path, but also need to combine the different correlation effects in the industrial link path to promote the coordinated and sustainable development of water resources and economic system more reasonably. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arid area is very sensitive to global warming and are extremely vulnerable to climate change. Moreover, the water resources system in the arid area is fragile and will undergo tremendous changes with climate change. Therefore, the interaction of climate and hydrology in arid area has an important impact on the formation of regional microclimate and hydrological changes. Daihai Lake is a typical closed inland lake in arid area of China, and a key area for ecological protection in North China. In this paper, WRF-Hydro model is used to simulate the climate hydrological coupling situation of Daihai Basin from 1980 to 2020, and the coupling results are verified and calibrated by meteorological statistics, runoff calculation and remote sensing analysis. Based on the synopsis of climate and hydrology in the past 40 years, the causes and future trends of the hydrological elements in Daihai Basin are analyzed. Through the analysis, it is found that the interannual variation of precipitation in Daihai Basin is sharp, with 401.75 mm as the average from 1980 to 1994; and drastic fluctuations from 1995 to 2011, with a difference of nearly 400 mm between the interannual maximum and minimum; From 2012 to 2020, the fluctuation is small. Although the interannual variation of evaporation fluctuated, it showed an upward trend with a slope of 8.855 mm/year. The annual average temperature showed an obvious upward trend with a slope of 0.040 °C/year. From 1980 to 2020, the inflow of Daihai Lake shows a downward trend; Since 2013, the runoff into the lake has tended to be flat. Climate change and human activities are the decisive factors leading to the change of water quantity in Daihai, among which human activities play a greater role. Cultivated land irrigation and industrial water use are highly correlated with the lake discharge, and these two factors have a great influence on the lake discharge. If the current agricultural and industrial water consumption does not increase, Daihai still has a lifespan of nearly 120 years. If human activities do not change and any protective measures are not taken in time, under the background of global climate change, the flow of the Daihai Lake into the lake will be reduced to zero in 2025, and the Daihai Lake will completely dry up in 2031–2033. The study of climate hydrological coupling of long time series in Daihai Basin can not only make up for the lack of runoff data, but also provide the basis for water resources management, disaster prevention and mitigation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Driven by the dual effects of artificial intelligence and accounting transformation, it has become one of the research hotspots of accounting intelligence in China to replace accountants with computers to make professional judgments and automatically evaluate accounting. On the basis of summarizing and analyzing the research status in the field of intelligent accounting, the realization path of intelligent accounting in water companies is put forward in this paper. By introducing the improved Apriori learning algorithm based on Boolean mapping matrix, intelligent data mining is carried out for evaluation of water accounting. With the help of the improved attribute inductive learning algorithm, the corresponding relationship between the original water consumption attribute and the water right transaction is mined and output. In addition, with the help of forward reasoning in inference engine technology, the computer intelligent data evaluation function is realized. Finally, the functional architecture of accounting system of the water company is designed, which provides reference for the development and application of intelligent accounting system, and explores a new path for the integration of accounting and intelligent algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cascade pump station irrigation districts (CPSIDs) consume vast amounts of irrigation water and energy. The aim of this study was to adjust the spatial patterns of crops and irrigation technologies in the CPSID to reduce the consumption of water and energy under the condition of conserving crop irrigation water. The irrigation district (ID) is divided into several sub-districts according to the topography elevation difference and the distribution of cascade pump stations (CPSs). The mathematical models of the irrigation water and energy consumption in each sub-district were established based on the relationship between the spatial patterns of crops and irrigation technologies in each sub-district. According to the present situation of the Jingdian Phase I Irrigation District in the arid region of northwest China, three modes of adjusting the crop planting structure and drip irrigation area were proposed. Based on the combination of these modes, three schemes of the spatial patterns of crops and irrigation technologies were generated. The annual energy consumption and irrigation water consumption of each sub-district in the ID of these three schemes were obtained through simulation. Compared with the present spatial patterns of crops and irrigation technologies in the Jingdian Phase I Irrigation District, Scheme 3 has the best water-saving and energy-saving effects, with an annual water saving and energy saving of 1753 × 104 m3 and 2898 × 104 kWh, and the water-saving rate and energy-saving rate were 12.34% and 15.74%, respectively. This paper also shows that the synchronous adjustment of crops and irrigation technologies among the sub-districts of ID can achieve significant water-saving and energy-saving effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Starting from the main eco-environmental problems faced by water environment, taking Yanhe River Basin as an example, this paper discusses the theoretical connotation and evaluation calculation method of eco-environmental water consumption. In order to study the eco-environmental water consumption of Yanhe River Basin, a runoff driving factor mining method based on big data analysis is established in this paper. Aiming at the problem that the statistical law and genetic law of runoff change frequently in changing environment, the mining technology method of runoff key driving factors is proposed by combining traditional methods with big data analysis. The characteristic factors that have no significant impact on runoff change are removed, the implicit characteristic factors affecting runoff change are extracted, the driving relationship of hydrological, meteorological, and vegetation characteristic factors on ecological water consumption change is identified, and the key driving factors of ecological water consumption change are extracted, which lays a data foundation for ecological water consumption prediction based on machine learning. The economic water consumption based on eco-environmental water consumption in Yanhe River Basin in the future is predicted (including water demand in three aspects of industry, agriculture, and life); that is, the prediction is to meet the economic water demand on the basis of ensuring that the water consumption of ecological environment will not be occupied, which can effectively ensure the improvement of ecological environment function in Yanhe River Basin and is conducive to the sustainable utilization of water resources in Yanhe River Basin. The research is only based on a small watershed such as Yanhe River Basin, and the purpose of the research is to provide a reference for ecological environment protection and sustainable utilization of water resources in the Loess Plateau, even in the arid, semiarid, and semihumid areas of North China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a traditional pillar industry in China, the textile industry has been intensifying the pressure of the water resource load and its reduction of water environment emissions over the years. Decoupling water resource consumption and wastewater discharge require decoupling from economic growth to realise the sustainable development of the textile industry. On the basis of water footprint and decoupling theories, this paper analysed the water consumption decoupling, wastewater discharge decoupling, as well as the double decoupling of water consumption and wastewater discharge of China’s textile industry and its three sub-industries (Manufacture of Textile, Manufacture of Textile Wearing and Apparel, Manufacture of Chemistry) from 2001 to 2015. In those years, the sum of the decoupling index in the double-decoupling years is 249, lower than that in high-decoupling years of water consumption (250) and wastewater discharge (325). Compared with the decoupling of water consumption and of wastewater discharge, the double decoupling is lower, which proves that the conditions for realizing double decoupling are stricter. The double decoupling analysis of water consumption and wastewater discharge, namely, the overall consideration of water resource consumption and water environment pollution, could be used to more effectively promote the realisation of water decoupling in the textile industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Roof water disaster is one of the most serious disasters in the process of coal mine safety mining in China. The thickness of modern comprehensive mechanized coal mining is large, which has a great impact on the roof aquifer, and the threat degree of water disaster is also increasing. Therefore, the evaluation of the water richness of the roof aquifer is an important work for coal mine water prevention and control. In order to systematically evaluate the water-rich property of an aquifer in a coal seam roof, this paper couples multisource geological information based on an analytic hierarchy process (AHP). The characteristics of the roof aquifer, hydrogeology, and structure are determined to be the main control factors of K2 limestone water richness evaluation. Under the main control factors, seven independent water richness evaluation indexes, including aquifer depth, aquifer thickness, borehole water level, borehole water consumption, faults, folds, and collapse columns, are divided, and a normalized water richness coupling evaluation model is constructed, which realizes the zoning and evaluation of a water-rich aquifer in a coal seam roof. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Chinese listed companies play a vital role in national economy, which has contributed more than half of the gross domestic product. But the environmental pollution existed in the production and operation of companies has been ignored, so an objective and comprehensive efficiency assessment of Chinese listed companies were urgent. This paper constructed an index system based on green perspective, employed a super-efficiency slacks-based measure DEA (SBM-DEA) model considering undesirable outputs to assess the sustainability efficiency of Chinese listed companies. The results indicated that (1) the green sustainability efficiency of listed companies needed to be greatly improved. The average efficiency score of samples was 0.461 over 3 years, so the improvement potential was about 53.9%, only 23 companies were relatively effective. (2) The sustainability efficiency of companies has shown a slow upward trend in volatility since 2017, the non-daily consumer goods sector was the most efficient, while utilities were relatively inefficient. (3) When efficient and inefficient companies were compared, the latter were found to have significant input surplus, especially in water consumption. (4) The analysis of sensitivity on inputs and outputs showed that attention should be paid to water consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. (5) Spearman non-parametric test verified that company size and debt-paying ability were the implicit factors affecting company sustainability efficiency. The results of performance evaluation can not only provide a potential reference for the operation and management of listed companies in China, but also have guiding significance for local governments to strengthen the supervision of companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water markets represent a favorable means to reallocate water resources. With global changes in water consumption patterns and caps, water rights trading has become an appropriate method to reallocate water between agriculture and industry in water-rich regions. This paper analyzed the economic benefits of water trading in water-rich regions, with reference to a case study of southern China. Based on a regional input–output table, the economic benefits that water trading brings to the regional economy were quantified, including related economic benefits, indirect economic benefits, and cumulative economic benefits. The results showed that water trading yields significant economic benefits for the regional economy because of the accompanying technological and economic connections established among different sectors. This study provides a reference point for water rights trading policies in water-rich regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to analyze the environmental impact of the viscose fiber/lyocell fiber manufacturing industry and obtain improvement information from China's analysis results. Our main research question is: How will the production of viscose/lyocell fiber affect the environment? Which raw material or process has the most significant impact on the environment? Is it possible for lyocell fiber to replace viscose fiber that has a greater impact on the environment? Methods: For the life cycle assessment (LCA) method, we use the analysis from the raw materials (pulp) to the end of the production (fiber) process. The paper mainly introduces the water consumption, energy utilization, and the production of three industrial wastes in producing the two fibers. The life cycle inventory input and output data were collected from two fiber manufacturers in China (manufacturing viscose fiber and lyocell fiber, respectively). Six impact categories were calculated using eFootprint online platform, including primary energy consumption (PED), non-living resource consumption potential (ADP), Resource depletion–water (WU), global warming potential (GWP), acidification potential (AP), and ecotoxicity (ET). Results and discussion: There is no significant difference between the ADP and WU values of the two processes from a comprehensive comparison. In PED, the value of lyocell fiber is approximately three times that of viscose fiber. Because viscose fiber uses more sulfide; its AP value is about twice that of lyocell fiber. The GWP of lyocell fiber is about two of that of viscose fiber. The ET value of viscose fiber is an order of magnitude higher than that of lyocell fiber. In the viscose fiber process, steam, pulp, ZnSO4, and sulfuric acid are the main contributors to the process's environmental impact. The main contribution rates of steam to PED, WU, GWP, and AP are 23.6%, 16.76%, 43.33%, and 18.99%, respectively. The use of ZnSO4 in viscose fiber resulted in an ET value of more than 90%. Alternatives can be found to reduce the environmental impact further. It is of great significance to study materials that can replace ZnSO4 as additives. In the lyocell fiber process, electricity, pulp, and steam are the main contributors to the process. The main contribution rates of electricity to PED, ADP, GWP, AP, and ET are 57.5%, 62%, 51%, 59.9%, and 69.3%, respectively. At present, this process mainly uses thermal power generation, which makes the environmental impact caused by electricity consumption great. If more economical or cleaner power supply can be considered, the environmental impact will be further improved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In China, the contradiction between rapid economic development and water shortage has attracted much attention. This paper explores the problems of water consumption and environmental pollution in provinces with different economic development levels in China. Sewage discharge is put into the undesirable meta frontier dynamic data envelopment analysis (DEA) model as an undesirable output variable. The water use efficiency under different income levels from 2013 to 2017 is compared at the provincial level from the perspective of domestic water use efficiency, ecological water use efficiency, industrial water use efficiency and agricultural water use efficiency, and the dynamic evolution is further revealed by using kernel density estimation. The results show that water resource utilisation efficiency is positively correlated with regional income level and economic development level. The internal differences in high‐income areas are narrowing, while the internal differences in middle‐income areas are significantly expanding; agricultural water use efficiency is the most prominent problem. In view of these situations, the total amount and intensity of water consumption should be controlled in high‐income areas. For middle‐income provinces with abundant water resources but low efficiency, local governments can strengthen legislation and supervision. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Achieving equality in water usage is part of the sixth goal of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. A comprehensive understanding evolution of inequality in water use and the driving factors behind the inequality can facilitate to implement equality in water consumption. In this work, the inequality index was used to measure China's water consumption inequality from 2004 to 2018 and the decomposition technique was used to decompose the status of inequality and the evolution of inequality. The results show the inequality in its water consumption was not reduced obviously despite China's rapid economic growth. There were 38.71% of provinces in China whose per capita water consumption was greater than the national average, mainly in the western region. For the three regions of China, the intraregional inequality was much greater than the interregional inequality. The western index was the largest and the eastern was the smallest. Among the factors that cause the inequality in water consumption, no one factor has been dominant at all times. Moreover, the effects of different factors changed over time. It is almost impossible to reduce inequality in water consumption through policy adjustment to several factors. China's example show that economic development cannot reduce the inequality in water consumption. More targeted policies and more efforts are required to reduce the inequality in water consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using input-output table of China in 2007, this paper built an input-output model and tested the effect of variation of water-use efficiency on the structure of virtual water trade. As the final water consumption coefficient increases (i.e., water-use efficiency decreases) in some department, the proportion of this department's virtual water outflow/inflow increases while those of all the other departments decrease. As the direct water consumption coefficient increases (i.e., water-use efficiency decreases), the proportion of this department's virtual water outflow/inflow increases while the sum but not each of the other departments' proportions decreases. The final water consumption coefficient of any department is bigger than the direct one, implying indirect water consumption exists and final water consumption coefficient is a better indicator for water-use efficiency. The paper shows that China is a net exporter of virtual water, but the departments of agriculture, mining, petrochemical are the net importers of virtual water. According to the results, China should use the strategy of virtual water trade to alleviate water shortage. Also, China should adopt water-saving technology in production, and improve the level of self-sufficiency of products in order to reduce reliance on foreign trade correspondingly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine the impacts of future climate change and the corresponding adaptation activities on grain production and its regional distribution in China. Design/methodology/approach - This paper applied the Chinese Agricultural Policy Analysis model, in combination with the findings from agronomic literature with highly detailed agricultural census data, to conduct equilibrium analysis under alternative impact (seasonal drought and climate warming) scenarios and adaptation scenarios (promoting water-saving irrigation, introducing new varieties, and the integrated) associated with climate change. Findings - Simulation results indicate that climate change-induced seasonal drought and the resulting yield reduction will incur substantial losses to China's grain production (by ~8 percent at a national scale). The application of water saving techniques can be an effective solution to seasonal drought. Introducing new varieties will increase the combination of promoting water-saving irrigation and new variety adoption will increase combination of promoting water-saving irrigation and new variety adoption constitute an effective approach to offsetting the negative effects of climate change on grain production. Research limitations/implications - Simulation results indicate that climate change-induced seasonal drought and the resulting sown area reduction will incur substantial losses to China's grain production by approximately 8 percent, despite farmers' adaptation activities of switching from water use-intensive crops to drought-tolerant crops to mitigate this negative effect. The application of water saving techniques is an effective solution to seasonal drought; it can lead to a nationwide increase in the sown area by 3.48 percent and in the grain production by 4.15 percent. Introducing new varieties will increase grain outputs and change the spatial distribution of crop production across the country. The combination of promoting water-saving irrigation and new variety adoption will increase the national grain production by 19.6 percent, and thus constitute an effective approach to offsetting the negative effects of climate change on grain production. Originality/value - Results from this study provide practical implications formulate strategies in response to climate change. Central government should reinforce the policies such as new varieties promotion and improve the subsidy method to guide the introduction of new varieties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the acceleration of industrialization and urbanization, China’s domestic water consumption has increased year by year. To improve the efficiency of household water use, China has issued mandatory national standards for Minimum Allowable Values of Water Efficiency and Water Efficiency Grades for Water Closets (GB 25502-2017) and Minimum Acceptable Values and Grades of the Energy Efficiency and Water Efficiency for Smart Water Closets (GB 38448-2019) and implemented a water efficiency labeling scheme. Based on scenario analysis, this paper designs a BAU scenario without implementing water efficiency standards and labeling scheme, a Standard Scenario where only water efficiency standards are implemented, and a Standard + Labeling Scenario where water efficiency labeling is carried out based on implementing water efficiency standards. By analyzing the market share and water efficiency distribution of ordinary and smart toilets in 2021–2025, the water consumption of toilet flushing and bidet functions in the three scenarios above were calculated. Compared with the BAU scenario, it is estimated that under the Standard Scenario, the annual water savings is 1.39~3.35 × 108 m³, and the cumulative water saving is about 10.75 × 108 m³ in five years; Under the Standard + Labeling Scenario, the annual water saving is 1.39~5.45 × 108 m³, and the cumulative water saving is about 17.39 × 108 m³ in five years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the economic and social development and population growth, as three basic interconnected resources, water, energy and food are gradually deficient and inharmonious. This research selected 31 provinces of China as the study area and collected data of 16 years' time series. The temporal and spatial synergetic change of water, energy and food was quantitatively described by wavelet analysis and MK test methods. The results show that water consumption for energy in 2001–2016 has the first main period of 12 years and the temporal synergetic change of water and energy would not be obvious in the future. According to the results, the resources consumption of water energy and food can be optimized to implement the sustainable utilization. Also, this paper proposed the adjustment strategy for the country. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Meeting landscape environmental water demand is one of the necessary conditions for realizing the stability and sustainablity of landscape environment. According to the characteristics of medium and small rivers in the northern cities, based on the river function, the concept of landscape environmental water demand was proposed, also its calculation method is studied in this paper. The landscape environmental water demand for medium and small rivers in the northern area can be divided into two parts according to the river functional types: environmental water demand and landscape water demand. To environmental water demand, according to river function, hydrological characteristics and water resources in different periods, the method to calculate the water demand by stages is put forward in the paper. Then integrating with landscape water demand, the landscape environmental water demand is calculated. Taking Shenyang Pu River ecological corridor as an example, it is divided into 9 sections combined with practical application and the landscape environmental water demand is calculated by the partition and staging. The results show that the landscape environmental water demand of Pu River ecological corridor is 6749.56x104 m³/year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From the perspective of value-added trade, this paper divides the virtual water consumption and trade in different provinces of China into five major paths according to the input-output relationship. In 2012 and 2015, most provinces' water resources were implicitly used in the final products to meet the local demand. In addition, the volume of virtual water trade in the complex domestic value chain is greater than that in the traditional domestic trade value chain and the simple domestic trade value chain. In both years, judging from the sum of virtual water trade volumes in the three major value chains, there is virtual water net inflow in Beijing-Tianjin and the northern, eastern and southern coastal areas, and virtual water net outflow in the northeast, central and northwest areas. In the course of this research, the virtual water net outflow turned into net inflow in the southwestern area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Endemic fluorosis is widespread in China, especially in the arid and semi-arid areas of northwest China, where endemic fluorosis caused by consumption of drinking water high in fluorine content is very common. We analyzed data on endemic fluorosis collected in Ningxia, a typical high-fluorine area in the north of China. Fluorosis cases were identified in 539 villages in 1981, in 4449 villages in 2010, and in 3269 villages in 2017. These were located in 19 administrative counties. In 2017, a total of 1.07 million individuals suffered from fluorosis in Ningxia, with more children suffering from dental fluorosis and skeletal fluorosis. Among Qingshuihe River basin disease areas, the high incidence of endemic fluorosis is in Yuanzhou District and Xiji County of Guyuan City. The paper holds that the genesis of the high incidence of endemic fluorosis in Qingshui River basin is mainly caused by chemical weathering, evaporation and concentration, and dissolution of fluorine-containing rocks around the basin, which is also closely related to the semi-arid geographical region background, basin structure, groundwater chemical characteristics, and climatic conditions of the basin. The process of mutual recharge and transformation between Qingshui River and shallow groundwater in the basin is intense. There is a close coupling relationship between the power of central and southern Ningxia disease areas and Qingshui River watershed of excess fluorine water. Because the traditional drinking water source of the residents in the basin is shallow groundwater, the underground water is the main cause of the high incidence of endemic fluorosis. The results show that Xiji County and Yuanzhou District were the areas of high incidence of endemic fluorosis which gradually decreased to the middle and lower reaches of Qingshui River. In space, distribution characteristics are Qingshui River source area > Qingshui River valley basin area, tributary area > trunk stream area, upstream area > middle reaches area> downstream area of Qingshui River. This is relatively consistent with the spatial distribution of fluoride ion content in Qingshui River groundwater. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]