The Water-Economy Nexus and Sustainable Transition of the Pearl River Delta, China (1999–2015)

Abstract

As the world’s largest urban area in both size and population, the rapid development of the Pearl River Delta (PRD) during past three decades has been accompanied by worsening water problems. This paper examines the water-economy nexus of the PRD from the perspectives of both water use and water quality between 1999 and 2015, with a Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index decomposition model as well as an Environmental Kuznets Curve model, in order to assess the sustainable transition of the area. The results show that in this period, while the water dependency of economic development went down by a significant extent, the efficiency gains did not prevail over problems caused by economic scale expansion. However, at the city level, the 2008 financial crisis stimulated an economic transformation of the main economies from being scale-dominated to being efficiency-dominated. From 2009 to 2015, the sewage decreases driven by water dependency of Guangzhou, Shenzhen, and Dongguan outweighed the sewage increases driven by economic scale. While sewage discharge increased, the river water quality of the PRD kept improving. We found an inverted “U”-shaped relationship between GDP per capita and water quality of the PRD, with GDP per capita = ¥14,228.27 as the inflection point for river water quality. Once dubbed the “factory floor” of the world, the PRD has moved into a less environmentally impactful phase of development, with more expenditure on environmental protection and policy reform. However, given the huge and ever-increasing economic and population scales, ensuring a sufficient and safe water supply through industrial recycling and public education, along with even further pollution abatement, will be particularly important.

What Is the Efficiency of Fast Urbanization? A China Study

“…The most typical undesirable outputs brought by urbanization process include greenhouse gases emission and water pollution, as well appreciated in previous studies [67][68][69][70]. The indicator CO 2 emission (O 8 ) is employed to measure the level of greenhouse gases emission [26,37], and waste water discharge (O 9 ) is selected for measuring the level of water pollution [52,69].…”

“…For example, the CO 2 emission in Beijing in 2015 was 6257 × 10 4 ton, whilst there was only 13 × 10 4 ton for the NO X and 7 × 10 4 ton for the SO 2 [71]. On the other hand, the discharge of waste water during the urbanization process affects significantly the public health and ecological integrity, which becomes a prominent challenge to be addressed for sustainable development [69]. In fact, water is vulnerable to be overexploited and polluted by anthropogenic activities.…”

The Protean Environmental State in Dongguan: Reconceptualising the local state and ecological development in China

“…Class IV (meaning unfit for humans to touch) water covered 20%, and the other 40% was still at Class V water quality (Dongguan Municipal Bureau of Environmental Protection, 2018b). Liu et al (2018) suggest that improvements in water quality owe as much to economic restructuring as they do to state efforts to clean up polluted rivers. Again, as in the case of air pollution, Dongguan is receiving pollution from beyond its borders.…”

“…In 2017, the quality of river water in Dongguan continued to slowly improve: 40% was recorded as Class III. Class IV (meaning unfit for humans to touch) water covered 20%, and the other 40% was still at Class V water quality (Dongguan Municipal Bureau of Environmental Protection, 2018b) Liu et al (2018). suggest that improvements in water quality owe as much too economic restructuring as they do to state efforts to clean up polluted rivers.…”

Identifying Nature–Community Nexuses for Sustainably Managing Social and Ecological Systems: A Case Study of the Qianjiangyuan National Park Pilot Area

“…While the real world, with its wide range of stakeholders, is complex and "messy" [4], efficiently integrating diverse and interacting components is vital to making decisions and responding to the sustainability of social-ecological systems. Nexus thinking, presenting different and multi-dimensional complex relationships, such as water-food-energy [5], water-energy [6], energy-poverty-climate [7], water-economy [8], and ecosystem-water-food-energy [9], is important for an integrated analysis.…”