Quantification of Industrial Wastewater Discharge From the Major Cities in Sichuan Province (China) from 2003 to 2018

Abstract

Wastewater discharge is produced as a side effect of socio-economic activities and exerts severe pressure on the environment, its characteristics depend on the rate of urbanization and industrialization. We used spatial autocorrelation, environmental Kuznets curve (EKC), and logarithmic mean Divisia index (LMDI) model to study the spatial characteristics and driving factors of industrial wastewater discharge in Sichuan province (2003–2018). We showed that the amount of industrial wastewater discharge in Sichuan province for the period was reduced from 116580 to 42064.96 million tons as observed from the Moran index ranging from -0.31 to 0.30. We identified five types of the EKC (monotonically decreasing, N, inverted N, U, and inverted U shape) in 18 major cities of Sichuan province. The technical effect (from -0.28 to -16.37) can reduce the discharge of industrial wastewater, while structure effect (0.05–3.83), economy effect (0.19–7.79) and population effect (from -0.08 to 0.46) can promote the industrial wastewater discharge. Our findings suggest that industrial wastewater discharge was reduced and showed a scattered distribution characteristic in Sichuan Province from 2003 to 2018. It is necessary to strengthen technical management measures to reduce industrial wastewater discharge in Sichuan province.