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Decoupling wastewater-related greenhouse gas emissions and water stress alleviation across 300 cities in China is challenging yet plausible by 2030

Nature Water volume 1, pages 534–546 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

Urban wastewater treatment and reuse infrastructure play a vital role in achieving water sustainability; however, the pathways to realize water–climate synergies in planning such infrastructure are not clear. Here we examine the nexus of urban water stress and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions resulting from expanding wastewater infrastructures across over 300 cities in China. We find that, despite a total increase of 176% in life-cycle GHG emissions, larger-scale wastewater treatment and reclaimed water reuse have nearly tripled the average amount of urban water stress alleviated between 2006 and 2015. However, with an extensive and integrated application of existing low-carbon technologies for wastewater treatment, sludge disposal and water reuse, it is possible to substantially further decouple water stress mitigation from GHG emissions by 2030. Under the optimized scenario, China can reduce wastewater-related emissions by 27% at the national level, while its eastern and northern cities could reduce emissions by over 40% for every unit of alleviated water stress. This study provides insights into the water–climate nexus and outlines feasible pathways to reduce water stress while mitigating wastewater-related GHG emissions.

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Fig. 1: Variations in the life-cycle GHG emissions of urban WWTPs and their respective water stress alleviation in 300 cities across China during 2006–2015.
Fig. 2: Sankey diagram revealing the nexus of water stress alleviation and life-cycle GHG emissions mediated by wastewater treatment technologies in China in 2015.
Fig. 3: Future life-cycle GHG emissions of urban WWTPs in China under different scenarios.
Fig. 4: Water stress alleviation and additional life-cycle GHG emissions from water stress alleviation (CIWSA) across China’s cities in 2030 from WWTPs under different scenarios (see CIWSA in 2020 and 2025 under different scenarios in Supplementary Fig. 15).
Fig. 5: Analytical framework for water stress alleviation and GHG emissions related to urban WWTPs from a life-cycle perspective.

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Data availability

Sources of data used to perform this study are provided in Methods and Supplementary Information. Any further data that support the model of this study are available from the corresponding authors upon request.

Code availability

The programming code for the hybrid life-cycle model is available from the corresponding authors on request.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (72074232, 72091511, 71725005 and 71921003), Natural Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars of Guangdong Province, China (2018B030306032), Beijing Outstanding Scientist Program (BJJWZYJH01201910027031), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2022YFF1301200), Major Project of National Social Science Fund of China (22&ZD108) and Jiangsu Provincial Department of Science and Technology (BK20220012). J.C.C. would like to acknowledge the support of the Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems, Hightower Chair and the Georgia Research Alliance at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Z.L. would like to acknowledge the support of Hong Kong Research Grant Council (26201721). The views and ideas expressed herein are solely of the authors and do not represent the ideas of the funding agencies in any forms.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China

    Shaoqing Chen, Linmei Zhang & Feng Jiang

  2. Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution Control and Remediation Technology, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China

    Shaoqing Chen, Linmei Zhang & Feng Jiang

  3. State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control & Resource Reuse, School of Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China

    Beibei Liu, Hang Yi & Hanshi Su

  4. The Johns Hopkins University–Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies, Nanjing, China

    Beibei Liu

  5. Advanced Systems Analysis Group, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis, Laxenburg, Austria

    Ali Kharrazi

  6. Global Studies Program, Faculty of International Liberal Arts, Akita International University, Yuwa City, Japan

    Ali Kharrazi

  7. Network for Education and Research on Peace and Sustainability (NERPS), Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan

    Ali Kharrazi

  8. Division of Environment and Sustainability, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China

    Zhongming Lu

  9. School of Civil and Environmental Engineering and the Brook Byers Institute for Sustainable Systems, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA, USA

    John C. Crittenden

  10. State Key Joint Laboratory of Environment Simulation and Pollution Control, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China

    Bin Chen

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Contributions

S.C. and B.L. designed the research; L.Z., S.C. and H.S. performed the research; S.C., L.Z., H.Y., A.K. and F.J. analysed data; S.C., B.L., A.K., B.C., Z.L. and J.C.C. wrote the paper; and B.C. and J.C.C. reviewed and edited the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Shaoqing Chen, Beibei Liu or Bin Chen.

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Chen, S., Zhang, L., Liu, B. et al. Decoupling wastewater-related greenhouse gas emissions and water stress alleviation across 300 cities in China is challenging yet plausible by 2030. Nat Water 1, 534–546 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44221-023-00087-4

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