| As the important elements of human production and life，Water resource is an importantissue which concerns the national economy and people’s livelihood. The uneven space-timedistribution of water resource is serious in China because of the natural and cultural factors.Along with the rapid economic growth in China, increase of population and the continuinggrowth of industrial and agricultural water needed, undoubtedly it exacerbated the securityproblems of Chinese water resource. And based on that, this paper introduced the relatedconcept of virtual water and water footprint, in order to provide a new perspective for thesustainable use of water resource and to alleviate the pressure of the water resource in ourcountry.Water footprint was produced on the basis of virtual water, it represents the quantity ofwater consumption of all products and services needed in a country or a region. It includesboth entity water consumption and virtual water consumption. Therefore, the water footprinttheory is a new system of evaluation of water resource utilization, which broke through thetraditional concept of water resource utilization. It better reflected the real consumption ofwater resource, provides a new thinking for the water resource evaluation.Based on the theory of virtual water and water footprint, on the basis of measuring thewater footprint of provinces and cities in China from1996to2010this paper mainly obtainedthe following conclusions.First, the total water footprint up from881.94billion to957.794billion cubic meters peryear in1996-2010, which turned a general upward trend. Among them, the occupancy of theconsumption of livestock products is the largest, while the ecological footprint is the least.Second, during the study period, the analysis of water footprint of industrial structurecome to the conclusion that water consumption of the first industry is basically stable, but itsshare is still the biggest. And the water consumption of the second and third industry shows arising trend. At the same time, according to calculating the water footprint intensity of threemajor industries, it concludes that the water footprint intensity of three major industriessignificantly decreased. Among them, the fastest decline is in the second industry, secondly isthe third industry and the first industry. This means that the water use efficiency of threemajor industries in China has a large increase.Third, analysis of water resource stress index concludes that water resources pressureindex is between0.27-0.41in our country. Water resources pressure is relatively small, but theconfiguration of water resource is unreasonable. This will bring serious challenges for ourcountry’s sustainable use of water resource.Fourth, the analysis of the consumption structure diversity index of virtual water in China concludes that the consumption diversity index of overall residents and rural residentsin our country is increasing, urban residents’ is rising steadily. But the urban residents’ issignificantly higher than the rural residents’. It’s mainly because that the urban residents’consumption is diversity, while the rural is single.Fifth, the analysis of the pattern of spatial correlation among the water footprint intensityin China concludes that distribution of water footprint intensity not only exists in the timecontinuity, but also has obvious spatial agglomeration. Lower low agglomerated area hasobviously widespread trend to the surroundings, which means lower low agglomerated areahas the space effect to reduce the water footprint intensity in the provinces surroundings. Andit improves the efficiency of water resource utilization.Sixth, the analysis of factors which impact water footprint intensity concludes thatpopulation and urbanization level are the top two factors which affect water footprintintensity.Finally, this paper put forward countermeasures and suggestions for sustainabledevelopment and utilization of water resource in China, such as optimizing the industrialstructure, improving water utilization efficiency in various industry departments,strengthening the construction of the engineering measures of water resources, developing thewater-cycle economy, implementing the trade strategy of virtual water, changing theconsumption structure, improving the consumption idea, establishing the managementsystem、policy and regulations about water resource．... |
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