水压力levels in many parts of China are very high, due to low levels of water supply and very high levels of demand. And new research shows the situation is worsening.

Using the baseline water stress metric developed for WRI’s Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas, we compared water stress in China between 2001 and 2010, the latest year for which catchment data are available. This analysis paints a much more accurate picture than previous analyses,使用来自300多个县和高空间分辨率网格数据的详细淡水撤回数据.我们发现，中国面临高水应力的土地面积比例从28％增加到30％，这意味着现在有6.78亿人生活在高水压力的地区。

水压力is defined作为年度戒断总（市政，工业和农业）的总数，占年度可用地表水的百分比。高价值表明用户之间的竞争更多 - 超过40％的价值被认为是“高水压力”，高于80％的“极高”。总体而言，中国54％的水压力worsenedfrom 2001 to 2010, while 8 percent of the country’s total land area, an area slightly larger than the U.S. state of Texas, moved into a higher category of water stress.

是什么驱动增加了水压力？

There are several reasons behind the worsened water stress situation for these catchments, but industrialization and urbanization are two of the biggest. Industrial water withdrawals increased in all provincial divisions except Beijing. For example, one catchment in the Yellow River Basin—where water stress increased by 55 percent—is near one of thecountry’s national coal bases. Extraction and refining of coal is a very water-intensive process. In the Pearl River Delta, one of the major economic zones in China on the southeastern coast, industrial GDPincreased 4.8 times, while urban population增长56％从2000年到2010年。在西南的吉州省，行业增长幅度很大，而城市人口increased by 22 percent从2001年到2010年。

一些地方政府已采取行动促进更高水的工业实践。例如，自2006年以来，山东省已关闭效率低下的造纸和钢铁工厂，结果，每单位产出的工业水取水dropped by 12.49 percent between 2001 and 2008. Other Chinese provinces should consider similar approaches in order to rein in industrial thirst and more efficiently utilize existing water resources.

Most areas in China also experienced an increase in domestic withdrawals, mainly due to population growth and improved standards of living. In catchments with increased domestic water withdrawal, more than 80 percent saw an increase in domestic water withdrawal per capita. With income growth, more families can afford household appliances like dishwashers and washing machines, and live a higher-consumption lifestyle. For example, the number of washing machines per 100 householdsincreased from 90.5 to 96.92during the 10-year period studied. The number of shower water heaters per 100 households从49.10增加到84.82.

While some catchments saw decreased domestic water withdrawal, this is because they’re located in areas so arid and dry that people have been forced to move to other locations. For example, a catchment in Inner Mongolia had a population of 4,730 in the year 2000 and a population of zero in the year 2010.

中国水故事中的亮点

While industrial and domestic water withdrawals increased overall, agricultural water use decreased in most areas. Total irrigation water withdrawal in 2010 decreased by 3 percent compared to 2001, which is quite significant given that the effective irrigation areaincreased by 11 percentduring the same time.

减少的驱动因素包括政策处方和饮水设备的部署。在中国2006 - 2010年的五年计划中，政府设定了稳定灌溉用水的目标。到2010年比2003年增加了40％to2010年.

Moving Toward a Water-Secure Future

加剧水压力已经成为中国关注的原因，威胁正在增长。例如，宁克斯省的水压力预计到2040年增加40-70％due to climate change’s effect on available surface water and the influence of socioeconomic factors.

China has already seen how strong water policies can lead to a decrease in water stress in the agricultural sector. Depending on each catchment’s unique water use and water stress situation, government and corporate policies can support more efficient and sustainable water use by: encouraging cultivation of less water-intensive crops; improving water-use efficiency in water-intensive industries like coal mining and electric power production; and promoting more water-conserving lifestyles amongst consumers. China may be facing mounting water threats, but it can start reversing course with the right policies and management practices.