title: Understanding Beijing's water challenge: a decomposition analysis of changes in Beijing's water footprint between 1997 and 2007.
abstract: Beijing has been experiencing increasing water shortage alongside its astonishing economic growth over the past decades. This study conducts a quasi-dynamic input-output (IO) analysis to investigate changes in Beijing's water footprint (WF) and decompose the effects of contributing factors to the changes during 1997-2007. The analysis distinguishes "internal" and "external" WF to depict connections of Beijing's water use with outside. The results show an increase in Beijing's WF from 4342 million m(3) in 1997 to 5748 million m(3) in 2007. Almost all the increase was attributable to the expansion of the external WF, while the internal WF only changed slightly, indicating a growing dependence of Beijing on external water resources. The decomposition analysis reveals that the technological effect was the principal contributor to offset the WF increase and the structural effect stemmed from the shift of demand toward products of the tertiary industries also contributed to reducing the WF. However, these effects were not sufficient to reverse the expansion of Beijing's WF resulted from the scale effect induced by expansion of final demand and the economic system efficiency effect associated with the growth of trade between Beijing and outside. The study provides insights into Beijing's water challenge and sheds lights on the combating strategies for the future. It is also an endeavor to enhance the policy relevance of the WF studies.
authors.affiliation: Academy of Mathematics and Systems Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, No.55, Zhongguancun East Road, Haidian District, 100190, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Zhuoying
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Minjun
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Shi
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yang
mesh_terms: D002681:China; D002947:Cities; D003247:Conservation of Natural Resources; D015233:Models, Statistical; D013997:Time Factors; D062066:Water Resources; D014881:Water Supply