Water Resources Contribution To Economic Growth In Erdos City: Model And Demonstration

Erdos City has been one of the fastest growing economic regions in China in the past twenty years, whose average annual economic growth rate has exceeded 20%. However, water resources shortage is becoming increasingly significant in constraint on social development and has gradually developed to be one of primary weakest factors. Based on the analysis of main factors promoting economic growth in Erdos City with Cobb-Douglas production function in economics, the economic growth model involving water resources availability and coal output has been established and the data conversion method considering water consumption efficiency and water consumption structural change has been proposed. In this way, it has made up for the deficiency of failing to fully consider the contribution of water consumption efficiency improvement and water consumption structural change to economic growth in the past researches. What have been discovered in the simulation and analysis of water resources contribution to economic growth in Erdos City from 1980 to 2010 as follows: (1) Water resources average contribution rate to economic growth in Erdos City in the past 30 years is 8.26%; (2) Consumption efficiency and structural change of water resources have played an important role in promoting economic development; (3) Water resources contribution to economic growth has shown a gradually increasing trend that the average contribution rates in the three decades are 1.87%, 9.69% and 10.09% respectively. The trend is closely connected with constantly increased gross water consumption, obvious improvement of water consumption efficiency and gradual upgrading of water consumption structure in the local area. It also has reflected that water resources have played an increasingly significant role in constraint on regional economic social development