Evaluation of Water Resources Utilization in the Taihu Basin from the Perspective of Water Footprint.

In order to fully understand the current situation of water resources utilization in the cities in the Taihu Basin under the background of the most stringent water resources management system, this paper summarizes the existing problems, and explores the future development direction of sustainable water resources. Based on the perspective of water footprint, it studies the utilization of water resources in the Taihu Basin and eight cities including Shanghai in the basin from 2015 to 2019, combined with the LMDI (Lograrithmic Mean Divisia Index Method) model to analyze the driving effect of population, wealth, and technical level on the changing in water footprint, and build an evaluation index system for the sustainable use of water resources.The results show that the total water footprint of the Taihu Basin has been declining in the past five years, the industrial and agricultural water footprints have been declining, and the domestic water footprint has been rising. Among the cities, Shanghai has the largest total water footprint and Jiaxing has the smallest. Technical level factors have the greatest impact on water footprint change, and population factors have the least impact. The degree of affluence and population are positively driven, and the technical level is negatively driven. The water footprint structure of the Taihu Basin is relatively stable, Shanghai and Suzhou are highly dependent on external water resources. The overall water footprint benefit continues to increase, with significant differences among cities in each indicator the ecological security situation of the water footprint is not optimistic, but it has shown a continuous improvement in the past three years. The research results indicate that in the future, cities in the Taihu Basin should increase investment in water-saving technologies, techniques and equipment when formulating and adjusting water resources management policies, promote the efficient development and utilization of agricultural and industrial water, strengthen the management of domestic water quotas, and pay attention to the pressure of population growth on water resources, continuously improve the utilization rate of water resources, and realize the sustainable use of regional water resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]