TY - JOUR
T1 - Water-saving strategies across prefectures should target the manufacturing and agriculture sectors in China
AU - Zhang, Zongyong
AU - Shan, Yuli
AU - Tillotson, Martin R.
AU - Ciais, Philippe
AU - Zhao, Xu
AU - Zhao, Dandan
AU - Yang, Hong
AU - Huo, Jingwen
AU - Zeng, Zhao
AU - Li, Xian
AU - Zheng, Heran
AU - Cai, Bofeng
AU - Wang, Wanqing
AU - Kai, Wang
AU - Li, Guanlin
AU - Niu, Geng
AU - Guan, Dabo
AU - Liu, Junguo
AU - Hao, Yu
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2025.
PY - 2025/12
Y1 - 2025/12
N2 - Water scarcity is a global challenge in many emerging economies, including China. China is one of the most extensive freshwater users and has set water efficiency improvement goals for 2030 at the prefecture level. However, no systematic water use and savings comparison exists across prefectures and sectors. Here, we used datasets of water withdrawal for 10,608 industrial and 1715 agricultural sub-sectors for 343 prefectures, and explored the opportunities to reduce water use. Results show that 10% of the least water-efficient industrial sub-sectors represent a disproportionate 46% water use. 18.9 km3 (±3.2%) water saving in industry and 50.3 km3 (±2.3%) in agriculture could be achieved, equivalent to Russia’s annual demand. A minority of sectors, including cloth(ing)- and chemical-manufacturing, rice-, vegetable- and fruit-cultivation, could contribute the most to water savings. Our study is essential for identifying water use and efficiency information for individual prefectures and sectors.
AB - Water scarcity is a global challenge in many emerging economies, including China. China is one of the most extensive freshwater users and has set water efficiency improvement goals for 2030 at the prefecture level. However, no systematic water use and savings comparison exists across prefectures and sectors. Here, we used datasets of water withdrawal for 10,608 industrial and 1715 agricultural sub-sectors for 343 prefectures, and explored the opportunities to reduce water use. Results show that 10% of the least water-efficient industrial sub-sectors represent a disproportionate 46% water use. 18.9 km3 (±3.2%) water saving in industry and 50.3 km3 (±2.3%) in agriculture could be achieved, equivalent to Russia’s annual demand. A minority of sectors, including cloth(ing)- and chemical-manufacturing, rice-, vegetable- and fruit-cultivation, could contribute the most to water savings. Our study is essential for identifying water use and efficiency information for individual prefectures and sectors.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=105004345997&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s43247-025-02292-3
DO - 10.1038/s43247-025-02292-3
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:105004345997
SN - 2662-4435
VL - 6
JO - Communications Earth and Environment
JF - Communications Earth and Environment
IS - 1
M1 - 349
ER -