Assessing Transboundary Impacts of Energy-Driven Water Footprint on Scarce Water Resources in China: Catchments under Stress and Mitigation Options

The energy supply chains operating beyond a region'sjurisdictioncan exert pressure on the availability of water resources in the localarea. In China, however, there is a lack of transboundary assessmentsthat investigate the effects of energy consumption on water stresswithin and across river basins. In this study, we therefore investigatetransboundary impacts on scarce water resources that are induced byenergy demands (i.e., electricity, petroleum, coal mining, oil andgas extraction, and gas production). We develop a bottom-up high spatialresolution water inventory and link it to a 2017 multiregional input-output(MRIO) table of China to analyze supply chain scarce water use atprovincial and river basin levels. We find that the energy-drivenwater footprint accounts for 21.6% of national water usage, of which35.7% is scarce water. Nonelectric power energy sectors contributeto around half of the nation's scarce water transfer. We identifythree sets of catchments whose water resources are stressed by energydemand, i.e., (a) from the northern Hai River Basin to the easternpart of the Yellow River Basin and the Huai River Basin, (b) the northernarea of the Northwest Rivers, and (c) the developed coastal city clustersin the Yangtze River Basin and the Pearl River Basin. We then evaluatethe impacts of eight mitigation options, which may potentially shiftaround half of the moderate- or high-stress areas in the Hai RiverBasin and the Northwest Rivers to low to moderate (or even low) stress.We highlight the need for transboundary collaboration to sustain water-constrainedenergy demand and to develop targeted measures to mitigate stresson water resources within a river basin. Little research exists on the transboundaryimpacts of energyuse on water at the catchment level. Here, we report on the unsustainabilityof energy demands with regard to the water stress displacement inarid catchments. We then discuss options to mitigate such water stress.