Comparing water footprint and water scarcity footprint of energy demand in China’s six megacities

Water is required throughout the life-cycle processes of energy production to meet the growing energy demands in China’s megacities. However, the spatially explicit impact on water scarcity both inside and outside the megacity boundaries from megacities’ energy demands remains unknown. We quantified and compared the water footprint and water scarcity footprint for final energy demand (WFE and WSFE) in China’s megacities from a consumption perspective. Six acknowledged megacities, i.e. Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Chongqing, Shenzhen and Guangzhou, were evaluated with an extended multi-region input–output model. The results showed that these megacities were endowed with only 2.60% of the national available water resources, but their WFE (WSFE) made up nearly 14.00% (13.50%) of the national total. The megacities located in Northern China generated a larger WSFE in their WFE than the cities in Southern China. Energy demands in these megacities were heavily dependent on scarce water sourced from beyond their administrative boundaries, together importing 84.10% of WSFE from elsewhere. Electricity demand dominated the volumetric water consumption, representing 52.00% of the WFE. The distribution was different for scarce water consumption, with coal demand generating 34.00% of total WSFE, followed by electricity (31.00%) and petroleum (26.00%). Although Northern China is faced with dire water scarcity, its scarce water is still being predominantly outsourced to support energy demands in both Northern and Southern megacities, mainly due to their coal and petroleum reserves. Location-specific pathways and foci should be applied for different megacities to decouple their energy demands and their scarce water consumption.