| The aim of this paper is to study the behaviour of the productive sectors of the Chinese economy as direct and indirect consumers of water. To that end, we employ input-output analysis. Based on the input-output data of primary sector and secondary sector water utilization in 2007 in China, we calculated the relevant water input coefficients and the quantity of water transferred among the industries. It could be useful to propose some advices for water use rationalization, water conservation management and resource-saving economic structure.This paper includes four parts. The first part is to analyze the input-output coefficients of industrial water consumption. Comparing the direct and indirect water consumption, we studied the issue of indirect driving of water consumption. We indicated that indirect water consumption of industries should be considered during the process of restructuring the water-saving industrial structure. The second part is to analyze the important coefficients that can impact the water consumption significantly. The importance of the coefficient was identified by comparing the impact degree of the relative change of the water consumption that caused by the relative change of this coefficient. We indicated that the funds and the technology should mainly be used for the key aspect to save water. The third part is to analyze the linkage of the industrial water consumption, which was measured by internal effect, complex effect, net forward linkage and net backward linkage. We obtained the net transfer of water among industries, and then indicated that the scale adjustment of industrial ultimate demand could be an effective way to ease the contradiction between water supply and demand. The last part is to summarize the water consumption and its industrial linkage in 2007 in China and propose some advice. At the same time, some inadequacy of this paper was pointed out. |
