Decomposition analysis of water consumption-related chemical oxygen demand emission in Chinese industrial sectors

Abstract

Water shortage in China is caused by the uneven distribution of water resources, a situation that can worsen given overexploitation and pollution. Chemical oxygen demand (COD) emission is considered the most important water pollutant. Using the logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) method, we analyse the main driving factors of the 2001-2011 changes in China's industrial water consumption-related COD emission. The main driving factors of COD emission are classified into five effects, namely, end-of-pipe treatment, COD emission intensity, water intensity, structural effect, and scale effect. In contrast to previous studies, the current work considers water consumption by using water intensity as an index. Results show that end-of-pipe treatment, with an effect of up to 35%, was the primary factor that influenced emission reduction during the studied period. Pollution reduction policies are key drivers of promoting advancements in technologies for reducing COD emission in industrial sectors, and technical efficiency in 2001-2011.

The Driving Forces of Point Source Wastewater Emission: Case Study of COD and NH4-N Discharges in Mainland China

“…Point source wastewater emissions are mainly influenced by the intensity of pollutant emissions, technological progress, economic activities and population growth [34,38]. This study explores the influential factors of the point source wastewater emissions by the LMDI method.…”

“…Moreover, LMDI can process the zero value in data which doesn’t affect the final result [31,32,33]. Hence, the LMDI method has been applied to identify key driving factors of wastewater discharge in China at the provincial level [19], industrial wastewater emissions [34,35], household wastewater emissions [36] and the COD discharge in China’s industrial sub-sectors [37,38]. These studies explore the driving factors of China’s wastewater emission change under different time scales, including economic scale, industrial structure, technological progress, and population size, and proposing industry or regional emission reduction strategies.…”