Exploring Water Use in Mildly Water-Scarce Regions: A Structural Decomposition Analysis for Anhui Province in China

Qianqian Li, Guangwei Deng (), Huaqing Wu, Tao Ding and Ya Chen
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Qianqian Li: School of Economics, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, Anhui 230601, P. R. China†Center for Industrial Information and Economy, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, Anhui 230601, P. R. China
Guangwei Deng: ��School of Management, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, Anhui 230009, P. R. China
Huaqing Wu: School of Economics, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, Anhui 230601, P. R. China†Center for Industrial Information and Economy, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, Anhui 230601, P. R. China
Tao Ding: School of Economics, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, Anhui 230601, P. R. China†Center for Industrial Information and Economy, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, Anhui 230601, P. R. China
Ya Chen: School of Economics, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, Anhui 230601, P. R. China†Center for Industrial Information and Economy, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, Anhui 230601, P. R. China

Water Economics and Policy (WEP), 2023, vol. 09, issue 02, 1-30

Abstract: Because of severe water scarcity, it is crucial to quantify water use in China’s water-scarce regions and to analyze the factors driving its use. In this paper, we analyze the driving factors behind the water footprint from 2007 to 2017 in the mildly water-scarce region of Anhui Province, using regional input–output models and structural decomposition analysis. The results show the following: (1) Although the average virtual water intensity of Anhui Province decreased by 52.58% from 2007 to 2017, the water-use efficiency was still low; (2) During the study period, the total water footprint of Anhui Province increased by 25.06%, with an obvious upward trend; (3) From 2012 to 2017, the net export volume of virtual water in Anhui Province was positive, and the flow volume decreased by 78.87%; (4) Technological progress contributed the most to reducing the water footprint of Anhui Province, followed by the increased counter-urbanization rate as the second-largest driving force. The expansion of the scale effect, including the size of the economy and the size of the population, was the main negative driving force for the increase in Anhui’s water footprint. However, the proportion of economic scale in the water footprint drivers gradually decreased.

Keywords: Water footprint; virtual water; mildly water-scarce region; structural decomposition analysis; Anhui Province (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1142/S2382624X23500054

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