Inter-Industry Transfer of Intermediate Virtual Water Scarcity Risk: The Case of China

Multiple factors need to be considered when allocating water resources, among which scarcity risk is often ignored. However, the unmet demand of upstream sectors with high dependency will exacerbate scarcity, and lead potential economic industrial chain. To solve it, we propose a method quantify intermediate virtual transfer via use matrix Leontief inverse matrix, apply it trade in China 2018. Meaningful conclusions are drawn as follows: (i) Although water-use efficiency all increased steadily from 2007 2018, overall input concentration showed rising trend, reflecting gradual increase vulnerability chain shortage. (ii) The mainly transferred through secondary industry. industry accounted for 51.8% output 71.8% transfer, while 77.0% 74.7%, respectively, input. (iii) From agriculture, chemical industry, metallurgy, electricity heat supply always ranked top four sectors. As their downstream sectors, construction other services stable within (iv) transmitted significantly dispersed after inputs process, indicating that abundant import relationships conducive reduce taken in. perspective input, this paper argues necessary both ensure source disperse sources. Moreover, enriching structures closing production linkages between also beneficial promoting sustainable development.