Study On Water Resources Management In Eight Economic Regions Of China Based On Grey Water Footprint Method

Water resource management is one of the main aspects for eco-civilization.And the coordinated development of economic regions were one of the main focus of the 13^th Five-Year plan and the 14^th Five-Year plan.While studies on the regional disparity and synergetic integration from perspectives of main Chinese economic regions are still limited.Therefore,this study carries out a comprehensive analysis on grey water footprint for eight economic regions.The sectoral grey water footprint(GWF)for each economic region are calculated firstly.Then,the correlation between GWF and economic development is analyzed using decoupling theory.Driving force analysis was finally done to identify the dominant impact factors of each economic regions.The results showed that the overall GWF in China increased during the study period and then decreased.Primary industry was the dominant sector that contributed to China's GWF,followed by the tertiary industry,and the secondary industry.In terms of contribution to the GWF from primary industry,the descending order is cattle breeding>planting industry>pig breeding>poultry breeding>sheep breeding.The total GWF of China's eight major economic regions fluctuates periodically around a certain mean value every five years.The negative effects of the primary industry on the eight economic regions are mainly manifested in the form of weak decoupling,expansionary negative decoupling and expansionary coupling.The decoupling effect of the secondary industry in economic regions of Northeast,North Coast and Northwest is not obvious.The GWF from tertiary industry in economic regions of Northeast,North Coast,Middle Yellow River and Middle Yangtze river region constrain development in these regions.The driving factors of GWF of primary industry is economic scale,while the weakening factor is industrial structure adjustment.The driving factor of GWF in the secondary industry is capital input,while the weakening factor is capital negative externality.The driving factor of GWF of tertiary industry is consumption potential and the weakening factor is consumption transformation.Policy suggestions are provided as follows.Firstly,strict management and control targets should be established from the top of different industries.Secondly,the effectiveness of market economics should be brought into action among industrial organizations to promote adoption of environmental priorities among enterprises.Finally,the end-of-industry treatment should be carried out aiming at rural and urban sewage treatment terminals.In addition,the resource endowment,strategic role and development orientation of the eight economic regions offer a foundation for reliable decision-making to achieve the goal of efficient water management and a reduced grey water footprint.