Toward the Coordinated Sustainable Development of Urban Water Resource Use and Economic Growth: An Empirical Analysis of Tianjin City, China

• Main Authors: Shasha Wang, Rongrong Li
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: MDPI AG 2018-04-01
• Series: Sustainability
• Subjects: industrial water utilization; economic growth; decoupling relationship; driving factors
• Online Access: http://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/10/5/1323

The coordinated sustainable development of urban water resources and economic growth requires a better understanding of the relationship between industrial water use and economic growth. This study analyzed the relationship between urban industrial water use and economic development in Tianjin City in China (one of the four municipalities directly under the Central Government) from 2005 to 2015. The research combined the logarithmic mean Divisia index model with the Tapio model to develop a new decoupled model analyzing the relationship between urban industrial water use and economic development. The results show that: (1) Tianjin’s industrial water use and economic growth show a clear decoupling; (2) the economic scale effect drives Tianjin’s total industrial water use and economic growth towards weaker decoupling, stabilizing in a weakly decoupled state; and (3) the industrial structure effect and industrial water intensity effect drive the decoupling of industrial water use and economic growth in Tianjin. Finally, the paper provides policy recommendations to promote the decoupling of industrial water use and economic growth.