Study on urban water saving amount in the benefited regions of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project

Based on different water consumption mechanism for different urban water-use sectors, this paper identified the main factors that affect urban water use in the benefited regions of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project. On the basis of historical data series, an econometric method was adopted to establish quota demand functions for water used in urban residents living, the second and the third industry. According to the quantitative relationship between water price and price elasticity of 41 cities in the studied areas, the inflection points of price elasticity for water use in urban residents living, the second and the third industry are -0.465, -0.54 and -0.46 respectively, corresponding water prices are ¥5.0, ¥6.9 and ¥9.1. Combined with prediction of economic development, the total water demand of the benefited regions under different scenarios in 2015 was obtained by calculation. The results show that, water-saving amount in the benefited regions can reach 0.972 billion m3, 1.344 billion m3 and 1.564 billion m3 respectively by applying three possible water price programs. The effect of water price on water saving is obvious.