Impact of China’s Urbanization on Water Use and Energy Consumption: An Econometric Method and Spatiotemporal Analysis

Water

Jianhua Wang¹  Baodeng Hou¹  Yong Zhao¹  Xuelei Zhang¹  Yan Wang¹  Weihua Xiao¹  Xinyi Song¹  Yicheng Wang¹ 

[1] State Key Laboratory of Simulation and Regulation of Water Cycle in River Basin, China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing 100038, China;

关键词: urbanization;    water use;    energy consumption;    cointegration test;    Granger causality test;    spatiotemporal analysis;   

DOI  :  10.3390/w10101323

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

As important subsystems of the urban environment, water resources and energy are necessary for normal urban functions and play an important supporting role in urbanization. The rapid development of China’s economy is increasingly dependent on these two subsystems. Analyses of the relationship between urbanization and water use or energy consumption have become the focus of attention, but researchers have mainly evaluated the impact on the two subsystems separately without providing an integrated analysis, nor have they revealed the link between water use and energy consumption. We addressed this information gap by using an econometric method to empirically investigate the long-term equilibrium relationships and Granger causal relationships among urbanization, water use, and energy consumption in China, and by conducting a spatiotemporal analysis to identify the trends of water use intensity and energy consumption intensity under the effects of urbanization during 2005–2015. We found long-term equilibrium relationships among urbanization, water use, and energy consumption. Granger causality results reveal the presence of a unidirectional Granger causal relationship running from urbanization to energy consumption and to water use, and bidirectional causality between energy consumption and water use. Moreover, water use intensity and energy consumption intensity decreased significantly under urbanization during the study period.

【 授权许可】

Unknown