Telecoupling China's City-Level Water Withdrawal with Distant Consumption

Trade causes the geospatial separation of production and consumption, which drives telecoupling between resource utilization and distant consumption. While benefiting the economy, trade can also exacerbate resource use inequality among regions. Here, we propose telecoupled water withdrawal (TWW) to examine the impact of distant consumption on local water resources, defined as local water withdrawal driven remotely by consumption in other regions. We characterize the TWW in China in 2015 at the city level (350 cities) using a nested multiregional input-output model. We find that approximately 20% of TWW is linked to foreign consumption, more than a quarter of which is driven by the United States. Moreover, cities with high TWW are concentrated on the Southeast coast and in Northwest China. Cities in Xinjiang province (Northwest China) account for 12% of the national TWW but only 0.7% of China's GDP. Our findings shed light on the telecoupling of pressure on local water resources in China cities and distant consumption at the global scale, calling for joint efforts by the contributors and beneficiaries of TWW to ensure the synergistic sustainability of water resources and trade.

Automated summary

Trade leads to geospatial separation of production and consumption, resulting in telecoupling between resource utilization and distant consumption. Our study investigates the telecoupled water withdrawal (TWW) in China, which refers to local water withdrawal driven remotely by consumption in other regions. We find that a significant portion of TWW in China is associated with foreign consumption, particularly from the United States. Our findings highlight the telecoupling of pressure on local water resources in China and emphasize the need for collaborative efforts to ensure the sustainable development of water resources and trade.