A three-scale input-output analysis of water use in a regional economy: Hebei province in China.

By means of the three-scale input-output analysis, this study, taking Hebei Province in China as a case work, analyzes the water use in the provincial district and compares that between regional and urban economies. To the best of our knowledge, this paper pioneers providing a multi-scale perspective in a spectrum from global, national and regional scale, into regional water use allocation and water-saving policy making in Hebei province. The embodied water intensities for Hebei are revealed to be higher than that of the global average, but relatively approximate to that of the national average. The fact that water embodied in Hebei’s final demand is much lower than the direct water withdrawal is unveiled, with large amounts of foreign embodied water exports and domestic imports flowing through the primary and secondary industries. The network outlines detailed supply and demand chains of water resources in Hebei province from global, national, and regional scales, laying a solid foundation for reasonable allocation of water resources in regional economies in context of regional development and urban integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]