When water saving limits recycling: Modelling economy-wide linkages of wastewater use

A factorial emission-focused general equilibrium model for investigating composite effects of multiple environmental policies

With the rapid growth of the economy, there are increasing conflicts between economic development and environmental protection. Among these conflicts, the wastewater emission management as one of the significant ways to alleviate water scarcity has been paid increasing attention across the developing countries, such as China. It is thus essential to comprehensively investigate the enviro-economic effects induced by wastewater-related policies. In this study, a factorial emission-focused general equilibrium model (FEGE) is first developed to facilitate examine the composite enviro-economic effects of multiple policy scenarios with regards to wastewater-related environmental taxes and the related subsides. A special case study for the Municipality of Chongqing, China, is conducted to illustrate the potential benefits of its use in the formulation of wastewater-related policies. It is found that the impacts of various wastewater-related policies (i.e., environmental taxes and the related subside) on GDP are different. In detail, green tax policies on GDP are negative, while wastewater emission intensity (WEI) improvement policies on GDP are positive. When green tax reaches 14 yuan/tonne, which is the maximum proposed by the Chinese government, the GDP will drop by 0.37%, which would be deemed acceptable for the Municipality of Chongqing. In addition, the impacts on rural households' consumption are greater than those on urban households' consumption whichever the application of wastewater-related policies; it is because the rural households in the Municipality of Chongqing have a relatively unitary income source. It is thus recommended that the rural household in Chongqing should be paid more attention. For example, some extra allowances could be considered to the rural household to help them cope with the negative economic impacts induced by a new environmental policy. It is expected that the outputs would provide bases for formulating desired wastewater-related policies.

Dynamic simulation for comprehensive water resources policies to improve water-use efficiency in coastal city

Coastal cities play an important role in regional economic development and sustainable development strategies of water resources and their ecological environment. As a typical coastal city in Hebei Province, Qinhuangdao city is facing severe problems, such as water shortages and water environment deterioration, while social and economic development continues. Based on input-output analysis, we established a dynamic optimization model among Qinhuangdao city's socioeconomic development, water resources and water environment. The 2013-2030 simulation after introducing comprehensive water resources policies of regional development, examines the regional socioeconomic development, optimizes the water resources supply structure and improves the water environment under the optimal scenario, and evaluates policy feasibility through cost-benefit analysis (CBA). The simulation results suggest that under the optimal scenario, the water-use efficiency (WE) of Qinhuangdao is improved by 59.14% and the proportion of reclaimed water and desalinated seawater in the water supply structure is increased by 13.70%. In addition, it has achieved an average annual gross regional production (GRP) growth rate of 6.36% and an average annual chemical oxygen demand (COD) emission rate of 17.95%. Moreover, the net present value (NPV) of the projects under the optimal scenario is 1.534 billion Chinese yuan (CNY), which means that the policy is economically feasible. Our research is helpful to improve the WE, optimize the water supply structure and protect the hydrogeological environment in coastal cities with water shortages and can provide a reference for Qinhuangdao city and other similar coastal cities to realize the rational utilization of water resources and regional sustainable development.

Effect of Water-Saving Society Policy on Water Consumption in the Cities of China: A Propensity Score Matching Analysis

The increased demand for water resources due to urban population and economic growth has worsened the urban water crisis. In order to address this issue, a policy of "developing a water-saving society" (namely, water-saving society policy) has been implemented in some Chinese cities. This study takes 285 cities at the prefecture level and above as the sample and uses the propensity score matching (PSM) method to analyze the effect of China's urban water-saving society policy on the reduction of water consumption per CNY 10,000 gross domestic product (GDP) from 2005 to 2017. The results show that the water-saving society policy significantly (p < 0.01) reduced water consumption in the study period; however, the effects differed between cities with different water resource endowments, economic development level, and urban scale. Specifically, there was a positive water consumption reduction effect in cities in humid areas, with low economic development, or of large scale, while the effect was limited in cities in arid areas, with high economic development, or of small scale. Therefore, for areas where water resource supply is insufficient, water-saving policy should be designed and implemented suiting local conditions, and it is also necessary to explore more water sources.