Analysis On The Variations And Driving Factors Of Grey Water Footprint In Hunan Province

Under the background of rapid economic development,increase in population,and improvement of residents’ lives,economic activities and social activities consumed huge amounts of natural resources,and increased the discharge of pollutants from agriculture,industry,and living.The natural ecological environment is facing serious threats.Coordinating the tension between human and nature and alleviating the contradiction between economic growth and environmental protection is the important problem which should be solved for realizing the sustainable development of society.As a basic natural resource,water has extremely important significance for economic development and social life.However,in the past,the extensive economic growth mode that relied on resource consumption and labor input,the consumption and pollution of water resources had caused tremendous pressure on the carrying capacity of the water ecological environment.Water scarcity and water pollution have had a negative impact on China’s economic development,social stability and people’s lives.The calculation of grey water is important for clarifying the status of water pollution in the region and achieving sustainable economic,environmental,and social development.This article sorted out the concept and research status of the gray water footprint;based on the theory and method of grey water footprint proposed by Hoekstra,the change of gray water footprint in Hunan Province from 2001 to 2015 was calculated to evaluate the water resources consumption and water pollution.The SITRPAT expansion model was used to analyze the driving factors of the grey water footprint change in Hunan Province which provides theoretical references and suggestions for alleviating the pressure of water resources and reducing the pollution of water resources.The results show that(1)The grey water footprint of Hunan Province from 2001-2015 decreased from 69.097 billion cubic meters in 2001 to 67.194 billion cubic meters in 2015,and the grey water footprint in 2001-2006 increased from 69.97 billion cubic meters to 83.519 billion cubic meters,the grey water footprint of 2006-2015 has been declining from 83.519 billion cubic meters to 67.194 billion cubic meters.The gray water footprint of agriculture in Hunan Province from 2001 to 2015 varies from 49% to 51%,the industrial gray water footprint changes from 23% to 9%,and the grey water footprint from life changes from 28% to 40%,the gray water footprint of agriculture accounts for a relatively stable proportion,the proportion of industrial gray water footprint shows a rapid downward trend,and the grey water footprint of life shows a continuous increase.In the grey water footprint of agriculture,the gray water footprint in crop farming and animal husbandry is the important part of the grey water footprint of agriculture in Hunan.(2)From 2001 to 2015,the gray water footprint intensity in Hunan Province dropped from 1802 cubic meters per ten thousand Yuan to 232 cubic meters per ten thousand Yuan,indicating that the utilization efficiency of water resources in Hunan Province has been continuously improved.The level of water pollution in Hunan Province is always below 1,indicating that the total water resources in Hunan Province can accommodate and dilute the level of pollutants discharged into the water bodies to meet the water quality standards.However,there is also the phenomenon of serious water pollution caused by uneven distribution of water resources in specific time and space.(3)The coefficient of influence of urbanization level,GDP per capita,foreign direct investment,the proportion of the secondary industry,the tertiary industry,and the gray water footprint intensity of the grey water footprint driving factor analysis in Hunan Province are 0.7996,-0.8148,-0.5115,0.6505,0.6543,-0.5892.According to the quadratic term impact coefficient of GDP per capita is-0.9982,there is an inverted U-shaped environmental Kuznets curve between Hunan’s economic development and grey water footprint,and the impact coefficient of foreign direct investment on gray water footprint is-0.5115.It is believed that there is no “pollution paradise” hypothesis in Hunan Province.Based on the results of the study,we propose to reduce the gray water footprint of Hunan Province from the aspects of preventing and controlling fecal pollution of stockbreeding,Expanding the scale of farms and improving ecological management level of crop farming,improving and optimizing the industrial structure,and strengthening urban sewage management.