Telecoupling China's City-Level Water Withdrawal with Distant Consumption

Area of Science:

• Environmental science
• Economics
• Water resource management

Background:

• International trade creates spatial separation between production and consumption.
• This separation drives telecoupling, impacting resource use and potentially causing inequality.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce and quantify telecoupled water withdrawal (TWW).
• To analyze the impact of distant consumption on local water resources in China.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a nested multiregional input-output model.
• Characterized TWW at the city level for 350 Chinese cities in 2015.

Main Results:

• Approximately 20% of TWW was linked to foreign consumption, with the US driving over a quarter of this.
• High TWW cities are concentrated on the Southeast coast and in Northwest China.
• Xinjiang province's cities accounted for 12% of national TWW with only 0.7% of GDP.

Conclusions:

• Findings highlight the telecoupling of water resource pressure and global consumption patterns.
• Calls for collaborative efforts between trade contributors and beneficiaries to ensure water and trade sustainability.