China is the largest consumer of water resources in the world, the total consumption of water resources is still increasing year by year. What are the main reasons for rising water resource consumption? This paper constructs China's spatio-temporal LMDI (the Logarithmic Mean Divisia Index) model to decompose water resources consumption into twelve driving factors with panel data from 2000 to 2015 and explores the main factors driving the rising water resource consumption. The results are summarized as following: (1) The intensity effect is the most important driving factor decreasing water resources consumption; (2) The loss of farmers reduces the water resources consumption in the agricultural sector, and the increase of urban population drives the rising water resource consumption in the residential sector; (3) The effect of industrial structure is different depending on regions; (4) In the agricultural sector, the driving factors have their own characteristics in each region.
Keywords: LMDI model; Water resources consumption; Water-saving potential.
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