Special Column:Celebration of the 70th Anniversary of IGSNRR, CAS

Relation of industrial water use and economic development: water use Kuznets Curve

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  • 1. Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101,China;
    2. Swiss Federate Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, Zurich, Switzerland

Received date: 2003-09-08

  Revised date: 2003-12-24

  Online published: 2004-06-25

Abstract

Empirical data show that there exists a turning point of industrial water use from increasing to decreasing in most developed countries.So the evolution of industrial water use along with income rising can be displayed in the frame of Kuznets Curve.The per capita GDP threshold of industrial water use turning down is 3700-17000$ (PPP,base year of 1985).The accompanying secondary industrial share in total GDP (SISGDP) is 30%-50%.The turning down of industrial water use concurred with the rapid decrease of SISGDP and the dwindling of heavy sectors.The direct cause of industrial water use decrease is water use efficiency gains,which come from two sources:a gain in water use efficiency within sectors and the economic structural adjustment.It gives us a good signal that the industrial water use in developing countries will not increase continuously,hence providing very important clues to the better forecast of industrial water use in developing countries.

Cite this article

JIA Shao-feng, ZHANG Shi-feng, YANG Hong, XIA Jun . Relation of industrial water use and economic development: water use Kuznets Curve[J]. JOURNAL OF NATURAL RESOURCES, 2004 , 19(3) : 279 -284 . DOI: 10.11849/zrzyxb.2004.03.002

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