The economics of green transition strategies for cities: Can low carbon,energy efficient development approaches be adapted to demand side urban water efficiency?

Cities are major contributors to global emissions, producers of waste and consumers of resources such as energy, water and food: implementing green development strategies is hence a core challenge of modern city-planning. The attention of research has been focusing on the development of energy efficient, low carbon strategies, yet city decision-makers need truly integrated approaches, as the one proposed by the water-energy-food Nexus. The purpose of our paper is to investigate whether it is possible to take one step in this direction by extending existing approaches to energy efficiency strategies to progressively include other priority resources, in particular water. To test this hypothesis we have taken a robust and well accepted methodology, the ELCC (Economics of Low Carbon development strategies for Cities) developed by SEI and CCCEP, and we have extended it to the case of demand side water efficiency strategies for cities. We have then applied the adapted ELCC framework to the case study of the domestic sector of the city of Bologna (Italy), identifying and prioritizing several efficiency measures. Measures were evaluated through their capital investment, annual values of savings, payback period and reduction in consumption, and then aggregated in different scenarios in order to highlight potential urban investments and to showcase a possible approach to the prioritization of demand side water efficiency measures. The results show that, with an upfront investment of € 17 million, a feasible subset of Bologna’s households could be equipped with five selected cost-effective measures, generating annual savings of € 10.2 million and reducing the total domestic water consumption of 34% by 2020 compared to the 2012 initial value. With additional € 28.5 million, households could be equipped with more costly appliances reaching an overall water reduction of 37% by 2020. Our findings confirm that it is possible to successfully extend current approaches to urban energy efficiency strategies to include demand side water efficiency, adding an important building block to the construction of an integrated Nexus-based approach to green development strategies at the city-level. We encourage further tests to confirm the robustness of the methodology.     

Gini coefficient to assess equity in domestic water supply in the Yellow River

Yellow River, is designated as “the cradle of Chinese civilization” and played a key role not only in the country’s economic development but also in the historic and cultural identity of the Chinese people. With the rapid economic development and population growth, water demand for industry and households has increased significantly in the Yellow River basin; this has caused an increasing gap between water supply and demand. Competing water demands triggered conflicts between disparate water users on different scales such as the rich and the poor, or between different sectors and regions, such as domestic and agriculture, agriculture and industry, upstream and downstream, rural and urban areas, etc. Ensuring equity in water supply for conflicting water users is one of the major challenges that facing water managers and in particular water management in the Yellow River basin. In this paper, a method has been developed to calculate the Gini coefficient of water use as an indicator to measure the equality in domestic water supply. A dual domestic water use structure model is employed for this purpose. The developed method is subsequently applied to assess the equality in domestic water supply in the Yellow River. Data of population growth, domestic water use and economic development over the time period 1999-2006 are used to calculate the Gini coefficient of water use over the same length of period. The result shows a decreasing trend in Gini coefficient of domestic water use in the Yellow River basin after 2001 which means domestic water use is becoming more and more equitable in the basin. The study justifies that the Gini coefficient of water use can be used and recommended as a useful tool for the water management especially in the context of global change.     

Product-related information for sustainable use of laundry detergents in Finnish households

The purpose of this paper is to report on research on how product-related information can guide sustainable product use in the context of laundry detergents. More precisely, the purpose of the study was designed to analyse how the detergent package information and dosing instructions are read, understood and followed in the Finnish households. Data collection methods included interviews in 340 Finnish households in 2004 and 299 households in 2005 with a standardised questionnaire. Results show that the majority of respondents did not know if the washing water is hard or soft, which indeed has a direct effect on dosing amounts. However, package information per se was found to be easily understandable, although dosing instructions for calculating the right amount of detergent for the laundry were often confusing. Finally, it is discussed how product-related information could be further improved to guide sustainable product use and to educate consumers about sustainable consumption.     

西安城市生活需水量预测

本文根据西安市过去若干年生活用水量的统计资料，分别采用一元线性回归、生长曲线、G(1，1)灰色系统模型和人均综合生活用水定额法对西安2010、2015年城市生活需水量进行预测，并对各种方法的预测结果进行分析比较，认为生长曲线模型的预测结果比较合理，确定西安2010、2015年城市生活需水量分别为3．4658亿m^3、3．6964亿m^3。     

Consuming technologies – developing routines

Routines in daily life are crucial for consumption of energy and water in households and therefore, knowledge of how routines develop and change is extremely relevant from a sustainable consumption perspective. Routines emerge, develop and change in close relation with different kinds of everyday technologies. In this article, these processes are investigated from three different perspectives: an historical perspective of how new technologies have entered homes, a consumer perspective of how both houses and new technologies are purchased and finally, as the primary part of the article, a user perspective of how routines develop while these technologies are being used. In the conclusion these insights are discussed in relation to possible ways of influencing routines.     

海河流域水量平衡与水资源安全问题研究

海河流域的水资源问题十分严重,但是水量平衡问题尚未很好地解决。水量平衡有三层含义,第一是降雨径流平衡;第二是水资源的供用耗排平衡;第三是水资源的供需平衡。目前海河流域水资源供用耗排平衡不明确的主要原因是非用水消耗量的定量不明确,论文对海河流域的现状水量平衡问题进行了分析和计算,得出了一般平水偏枯年份下的各平衡要素是定量值,其中海河流域年用水量为410×10⁸m³,入海水量为50×10⁸～100×10⁸m³,非用水消耗量为59×10⁸～71×10⁸m³,并对缺水量进行估算。论文还分析了近年来海河流域的用水特点,对水资源供需平衡进行研究和探讨,按照有关方法对过去几年中海河水安全状况进行评价,得出了1994～1996年海河流域供水安全而1997～2001年不安全的结论,并提出了今后要达到水资源供需平衡需要的条件以及应采取的对策和建议。     

基于入户调查的中国北方人口生活耗水量估算与地域差异

基于人口生活用水的入户实地调查,结合中国北方县域单元人口和气象台站降水量,厘定了不同降水带及其不同时段的人均生活耗水系数(η),同时得出相应地带不同时代的人口生活耗水量。研究表明:不同降水带的η值从20世纪50年代到90年代增长速度加快,100～200、200～400、400～600和600～800mm降水带η值增加幅度依次为1.84倍、2.62倍、2.84倍和2.68倍;从不同降水带来看,人口生活耗水量从20世纪50年代到90年代都是400～600mm降水带最高,然后向两边依次递减。降水带人口生活耗水量与相应降水带面积的比值(k)普遍增加,表明中国北方各降水带人口生活耗水量对各带的生态环境压力在增大。研究可为估算不同地带人口生活用水量、建立家户层次的水资源高效利用模式提供参考。     

Proposal of a simple indicator for sustainable consumption: classifying goods and services into three types focusing on their optimal consumption levels

We calculated optimal consumption patterns of Japanese households using a linear programming model, taking into account the different environmental burdens to be minimized. Ninety-four industrial sectors and 94 commodities were defined in the model. In terms of environmental burdens to be minimized, this study considered energy consumption, CO₂ emission, waste, and NO_x emission. According to the direction (increase or decrease) of adjusted final demand for a commodity in the household, commodities were classified into three types: (1) a commodity for which optimal demand should be decreased in all cases of reducing various environmental burdens; (2) a commodity whose optimal demand should be increased in all cases; and (3) a commodity whose optimal demand depends on the type of environmental burden. Among 63 commodities whose final demand was assumed to be adjustable, 47 were categorized as commodity type 1, nine were categorized as commodity type 2, and seven belonged to commodity type 3. This work also characterized each type of commodity from the viewpoint of economic and environmental properties.     

中国经济发展与水资源利用脱钩态势评价与展望

通过国内外相关文献研究与数据收集,构建了中国经济发展与水资源利用的脱钩时态分析模型。并应用该模型实证分析了新中国成立后1953—2010 年中国经济发展与水资源利用的脱钩态势,系统剖析了经济发展与水资源利用脱钩的内在机理。在此基础上,根据水资源消耗利用变化趋势,采用Logistic 模型,对我国水资源需求利用的自然发展趋势进行预测,并根据国家发展规划对水资源需求利用预测结果进行修正。同时从社会政治、经济技术方面进行水资源利用脱钩的可行性分析。结果表明,未来10 a,我国用水总量增长速度将加速减慢。预期至2020 年左右,我国经济发展与水资源利用有望保持绝对脱钩的发展态势,用水总量预计将进入缓慢下降期。     

我国行业水资源消耗的关联度分析

选取2007年相关数据进行整理分析,应用基于假设抽取法的水资源消耗产业关联度计量模型,比较各行业水资源的直接消耗和纵向集成消耗,定量测算出我国行业间水资源的流动转移情况.通过分析得到:不同行业的水资源直接消耗量与满足自身需求所需的水资源量有所差异,但是对于经济系统而言,所有行业水资源的直接消耗总量等于为满足最终需求所需的水资源总量,即水资源在经济系统的不同行业之间发生了转移;在经济系统中,农业、基础工业作为产业链上游行业将大量的水资源通过中间投入的方式转移到其下游行业中,轻工业、高科技工业等产业链下游行业的直接消耗的水资源无法满足自身需求,必须从其上游行业转移水资源;水资源从产业链的上游逐级向下游转移,维持着经济系统产品的生产与交换;如果行业的最终需求不变,单纯调整产业结构仅是将水资源消耗量大的行业进行区位或行业上的转移,而经济系统水资源消耗的总量并没有改变.本文通过定量化的方式来研究行业水资源消耗关联,初步揭示了水资源在行业间的消耗规律,能够为产业调整提供新视角,为产业结构调整政策提供更为科学的依据.     

Agricultural adaptation of climate change in China.

This paper presents the study on agriculture adaptation to climate change by adopting the assumed land use change strategy to resist the water shortage and to build the capacity to adapt the expected climate change in the northern China. The cost-benefit analysis result shows that assumed land use change from high water consuming rice cultivation to other crops is very effective. Over 7 billions m3 of water can be saved. Potential conflicts between different social interest groups, different regions, demand and supply, and present and future interests have been analyzed for to form a policy to implement the adaptation strategy. Trade, usually taken as one of adaptation strategies, was suggested as a policy option for to support land use change, which not only meets the consumption demand, but also, in terms of resources, imports water resources.     

干旱区旅游业用水供需适配性评价模型及应用——以中国新疆为例

干旱区旅游业在促进区域社会经济发展的同时,也加剧了地区的水资源供需矛盾。针对中国干旱区水资源禀赋及旅游产业的特点,提出干旱区旅游业用水供需适配性评价模型。按照旅游业产值对地区生产总值贡献率、旅游业从业人员占地区就业人员比例、地区水资源禀赋约束等指标,构建综合测算干旱区旅游业用水供给量测算模型;从旅游“食、住、行、游、娱、购”全要素视角,建立由餐饮水足迹、住宿水足迹、能源水足迹、游览水足迹、购物水足迹等账户组成的旅游业用水需求量测算模型;针对“供给”与“需求”水量的数量关系,利用组合分析方法,构建旅游业用水供需适配性程度指数评价模型,并设定评价阈值,测算干旱区旅游业用水供给与需求适配性程度的评价等级。实证分析了新疆2025年旅游业用水供需适配性程度,得出结论：为使旅游业用水维持在“供需基本平衡”或“供需平衡”的状态,新疆旅游业规模最高发展速度应在15%以内,同时新疆政府必须保持社会用水量年均节水率在0.95%及以上;而如某年发生突发性事件,则其之后年份的旅游业规模发展速度可放宽至20%。     

山东省水资源承载力的动力学预测

水资源承载力是区域自然资源承载力的重要组成部分,是水资源紧缺地区能否支撑人口、经济与环境协调发展的一个限制指标。论文用动力学模型,通过3种方案对山东省未来20年水资源承载力进行预测,结果表明:3种方案在未来20年的水资源平衡指数都是小于零的,这说明,水资源对应的社会经济系统是不可承载的,经济规模也是不可以承载的,人口规模只有方案2可以承载。从方案1预测的结果看,从2006年到2025年,山东省总需水量在270×10⁸～340×10⁸m³之间,波动不是很大,工业用水上升了3倍,但农业用水下降不大;从方案2预测的结果看,总需水量变动较大,20年增加了近3倍,水资源消耗量太大,因此笔者认为,在未来的20年里,山东省应加强宏观调控,适当控制GDP的增长速度,并大幅度降低单位GDP的水资源消耗量,真正落实科学发展观,实现可持续发展;从方案3预测的结果看,山东省总需水量波动不是很大,尽管工业发展很快,但由于万元工业增加值用水量下降较大,所以整体工业用水量不升反降,农业用水量也在下降,这是我们所希望的结果。     

Impacts of climate variability and changes on domestic water use in the Yellow River Basin of China

We present a methodology for using a domestic water use time series that were obtained from Yellow River Conservancy Commission, together with the climatic records from the National Climate Center of China to evaluate the effects of climate variability on water use in the Yellow River Basin. A suit of seven Global Circulation Models (GCMs) were adopted to anticipate future climate patterns in the Yellow River. The historical records showed evidences of rises in temperature and subsequent rises in domestic water demand in the basin. For Upstream of Longyangxia region, the impact was the least, with only 0.0021?×?10⁸ m³ for a temperature increase of 1 °C; while for Longyangxia-Lanzhou region, domestic water use was found to increase to 0.18?×?10⁸ m³ when temperature increases 1 °C. Downstream of Huayuankou was the region with the most changes in temperature that gave the highest increase of 1.95?×?10⁸ m³ in domestic water demand for 1 °C of change of temperature. Downstream of Huayuankou was identified as the most vulnerable area, where domestic water demand increases nearly by 42.2 % with 1 °C increase of temperature. Judging from the trends of temperature range, we concluded that future temperature in Yellow River Basin has an increasing tendency. This could worsen the existing issues of domestic water demand and even more to trigger high competition among different water-using sectors.     

Natural purification effects in the river in consideration with domestic wastewater pollutant discharge reduction effects

The first social experiment program in Japan to reduce domestic wastewater pollutant discharge by “soft interventions” in households has been conducted in the Yamato-gawa River drainage area since 2005. The Yamato-gawa River has been listed as one of the worst water quality rivers in Japan because of the larger annual average BOD. “Hard interventions” including deployment of wastewater treatment facilities and artificial installation of natural purification facilities in the river has been conducted in these years to improve river water quality. At the first Yamato-gawa River social experiment program (YR-SEP) in March 2005, BOD at the monitoring point near the river mouth decreased about 6% during the Program. Natural purification e ect along the river was evaluated in this article with one-dimensional water quality model for the six river sections. Larger biological oxygen consumption rate, kb, was estimated in the sections with artificially installed natural purification facilities. The e ect of “soft interventions” in households in the YR-SEP was estimated as 25% BOD decrease in the nearest monitoring point to the river mouth, when all the households participate in the Program and BOD discharge reduction rate with “soft interventions” in households was 40%.     

Changes in quality of groundwater with seasonal fluctuations: an example from Ghor Safi area, southern Dead Sea coastal aquifers, Jordan

Introduction The alluvial fan along the eastern and southern m argins of the D ead Sea (hereafter denoted D S) consists of fine to coarse-grained siliclastic sand and pebble-size gravel w ith thin intercalations of lam inated m arl of H olocene age (Pow e…     

民勤绿洲种植业结构调整及其对农作物需水量的影响

论文引入虚拟水理论,构建种植业结构调整需水模型,分析近33 a民勤绿洲种植业结构调整对农作物需水量的影响。结果表明：1）民勤绿洲粮食作物、经济作物与其他作物面积比重之比由1978年的84∶12∶4调整为2010年的25∶72∶3。粮食作物播种面积比重的下降主要是由小麦播种面积比重的快速减少所致。2）民勤绿洲农作物需水总量由1978年的2.15×10⁸ m³增加到2010年的2.49×10⁸ m³,粮食作物和经济作物需水总量之比由1978年的88∶12变化为2010年的31∶69。3）民勤绿洲种植业结构调整的生态节水效应在不同时段存在差异,1979—1998年,种植业结构调整对于农作物需水而言,未起到节水作用;1999—2008年,种植业结构调整的节水效果明显;2009—2010年,种植业结构的进一步调整导致需水量的快速增加,未起到节水作用。单位面积需水量较高的蔬菜、小麦、玉米等5种农作物面积比重之和的大小对节水效果起到决定性作用。     

农牧交错区农户生态足迹及其影响因素

利用农牧交错区典型区域农户调查数据,从生产和消费两个方面分析了农户生态足迹及其影响因素。研究结果表明：1）农户生产足迹远远高于消费足迹,草地生产足迹和草地消费足迹分别对农户总生产足迹和总消费足迹具有决定作用;2）农户生态足迹,尤其是草地生产足迹和草地消费足迹与收入水平具有显著正相关关系,农户从事非农就业一定程度上降低了对当地自然资源的占用和消耗;3）少数民族户、畜牧业收入占比大、人均牧草地多的农户,虽然耕地生产足迹和耕地消费足迹较小,但总生产足迹和总消费足迹、草地生产足迹和草地消费足迹均较大。基于农牧交错区脆弱生态系统,建议通过完善生态补偿机制、改变农户粗放化的畜牧业生产方式、促进农户非农就业,降低农户对本区域生态系统的压力。     

水资源稀缺条件下的水资源价值评价模型及其应用

水资源价值评价是水资源研究的重要内容。在水资源短缺条件下,水资源的价值计算显得尤为重要。在综述国内外水资源价值评价研究的基础上,提出建立模糊-灰色关联分析复合的水资源价值模型,并用其对北京地区的水资源价格进行了计算分析。结果表明,北京市目前各类现行水价均低于其计算所得的实际价值。     

北京市虚拟水消费与贸易

北京市作为水资源极度紧缺的城市,亟需提高水资源的利用效率。本文基于多尺度投入产出分析模型,对2012年北京市虚拟水消费及贸易情况进行了核算与分析,并与2007年的结果进行了比较。计算结果表明：2012年北京市消费引发的虚拟水用量高达139.5亿m³,是基于生产的直接实体用水量（35.9亿m³）的3.89倍;对比2007年,虚拟水消费增长（23.7%）远比直接用水增长（11.8%）快。北京市使用的全部水资源中仅有5%由北京本地供应,有超过3/5从国内其他省市调入,约35%从世界其他国家进口。与此相对应,这些水资源有1/5被北京本地消费使用,约3/4被调出到国内其他省市,6%被出口至其他国家。与2007年相比,2012年北京市国内虚拟水贸易由净调入转为净调出,净调出量为2007年净调入量的1.1倍;而国际虚拟水贸易由净出口转为净进口,净进口量为2007年净出口量的837.2倍。北京市2012年净输入虚拟水资源103.6亿m³（全部来源于国际贸易）,有效地避免了对本地水资源的过度开采。与此同时,北京市通过转口贸易的形式将大量进口的虚拟水调出到了中国其他省市,为缓解国内水资源紧张局面作出了贡献。未来北京市应当在考虑能源矿产供应安全及消化国内过剩产能的前提下有策略性地增加矿产、能源、建筑和交通运输设备等部门部分产品的进口,以达到节约我国水资源及全球范围内水资源高效利用的目的。