Research on the Evolution Law and Driving Effects of Total Regional Water Use in China

In view of the demand for water saving and water network construction in China, as well as the serious uneven temporal and spatial distribution of water resources, and the great differences in economic development level and population size among different regions, the data of water consumption, industrial added value and population structure of each provincial administrative region from 2000 to 2020 are used.The LMDI index decomposition method and GDP constant price conversion method were used to analyze the difference of total water use, water use structure change, and the intensity and contribution ratio of driving effects of water use intensity, industrial structure, economic scale and population size in each region from two perspectives of time and space, aiming to support China’s water resources planning and management as well as water use structure adjustment. From the perspective of time, economic growth is the most important driving factor for the increase of total water use in China. The decrease of industrial water use intensity and industrial structure adjustment, especially the decrease of water use intensity and proportion in the primary industry, are the main factors inhibiting the increase of regional total water use.The effect of water use intensity is slightly greater than that of industrial structure, while the increase of population size has no obvious effect on the increase of total water use. Therefore, China’s water consumption control should be based on the strategy of improving water use efficiency and optimizing and upgrading the industrial structure. From the perspective of space, the four driving effects in the major regions of China promote or inhibit the increase of total water use steadily. In order to narrow the spatial difference of water consumption in different regions of China, inland areas such as Southwest and Northwest of China need to vigorously develop economic scale on the basis of optimizing the industrial structure; meanwhile, Northwest of China also urgently needs to improve water use efficiency in the primary industry; while East China can properly control the population size, the northeast and northwest need to control the population outflow.