Quantifying economic-social-environmental trade-offs and synergies of water-supply constraints: An application to the capital region of China

Zhao，Dandan1,2; Liu，Junguo2; Sun，Laixiang3,4,5; Ye，Bin2; Hubacek，Klaus6; Feng，Kuishuang3; Varis，Olli1

2021-05-01

10.1016/j.watres.2021.116986

WATER RESEARCH   影响因子和分区

0043-1354

1879-2448

Sustainable water management is one of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) and is characterized by a high level of interdependencies with other SDGs from regional to global scales. Many water assessment studies are restricted to silo thinking, mostly focusing on water-related consequences, while lacking a quantification of trade-offs and synergies of economic, social, and environmental dimensions. To fill this knowledge gap, we propose a “nexus” approach that integrates a water supply constrained multi-regional input-output (mixed MRIO) model, scenario analysis, and multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) to quantify the trade-offs and synergies at the sectoral level for the capital region of China, i.e. the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban agglomeration. A total of 120 industrial transition scenarios including nine major industries with high water-intensities and water consumption under current development pathways were developed to facilitate the trade-off and synergy analysis between economic loss, social goals (here, the number of jobs) and environmental protection (with grey water footprint representing water pollution) triggered by water conservation measures. Our simulation results show that an imposition of a tolerable water constraint (a necessary water consumption reduction for regional water stress level to move from severe to moderate) in the region would result in an average economic loss of 68.4 (± 16.0) billion Yuan (1 yuan ≈ 0.158 USD$ in 2012), or 1.3 % of regional GDP, a loss of 1.94 (± 0.18) million jobs (i.e. 3.5 % of the work force) and a reduction of 1.27 (± 0.40) billion m or about 2.2% of the regional grey water footprint. A tolerable water rationing in water-intensive sectors such as Agriculture, Food and tobacco processing, Electricity and heating power production and Chemicals would result in the lowest economic and job losses and the largest environmental benefits. Based on MCDA, we selected the 10 best scenarios with regard to their economic, social and environmental performances as references for guiding future water management and suggested industrial transition policies. This integrated approach could be a powerful policy support tool for 1) assessing trade-offs and synergies among multiple criteria and across multiple region-sectors under resource constraints; 2) quantifying the short-term supply-chain effects of different containment measures, and 3) facilitating more insightful evaluation of SDGs at the regional level so as to determine priorities for local governments and practitioners to achieve SDGs.

Industrial transition multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) supply-constrained multi-regional input-output (mixed MRIO) model sustainable development goals synergy trade-offs

SCI ; EI ; SSCI

英语

NI论文

通讯

National Natural Science Foundation of China[41625001,51711520317,41571022] ; Strategic Priority Research Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences[XDA20060402] ; High-level Special Funding of the Southern University of Science and Technology["G02296302","G02296402"]

Engineering ; Environmental Sciences & Ecology ; Water Resources

Engineering, Environmental ; Environmental Sciences ; Water Resources

WOS:000635178800013

PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD

20211110071383

Agriculture ; Chemical contamination ; Economic and social effects ; Environmental protection ; Planning ; Sustainable development ; Water conservation ; Water management ; Water pollution ; Water supply

Water Resources:444 ; Water Supply Systems:446.1 ; Water Pollution:453 ; Environmental Impact and Protection:454.2 ; Agricultural Equipment and Methods; Vegetation and Pest Control:821 ; Food Products:822.3 ; Management:912.2 ; Social Sciences:971

ENVIRONMENT/ECOLOGY

2-s2.0-85102304769

Scopus

1.Water & Development Research Group,Department of Built Environment,Aalto University,Espoo,PO Box 15200,00076,Finland
2.School of Environmental Science and Engineering,Southern University of Science and Technology,Shenzhen,518055,China
3.Department of Geographical Sciences,University of Maryland,College Park,United States
4.School of Finance and Management,SOAS,University of London,London,United Kingdom
5.Institute of Blue and Green Development,Weihai Institute of Interdisciplinary Research,Shandong University,Weihai,China
6.Integrated Research of Energy,Environment and Society (IREES),Energy and Sustainability Research Institute (ESRIG),University of Groningen,Netherlands

Zhao，Dandan,Liu，Junguo,Sun，Laixiang,et al. Quantifying economic-social-environmental trade-offs and synergies of water-supply constraints: An application to the capital region of China[J]. WATER RESEARCH,2021,195.

Zhao，Dandan.,Liu，Junguo.,Sun，Laixiang.,Ye，Bin.,Hubacek，Klaus.,...&Varis，Olli.(2021).Quantifying economic-social-environmental trade-offs and synergies of water-supply constraints: An application to the capital region of China.WATER RESEARCH,195.

Zhao，Dandan,et al."Quantifying economic-social-environmental trade-offs and synergies of water-supply constraints: An application to the capital region of China".WATER RESEARCH 195(2021).