Identifying Drivers of China's Provincial Wastewater Reuse Outcomes Using Qualitative Comparative Analysis |
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Authors: | Daqian Jiang Manuel Fischer Zhe Huang Nadja Kunz |
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Institution: | 1. School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA;2. Department of Environmental Social Sciences, Eawag (Swiss Federal Institute for Aquatic Science and Technology), Dübendorf, Switzerland;3. Institute of Political Science, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland;4. Department of Civil, Environmental, and Architectural Engineering, University of Colorado Boulder, Boulder, CO, USA;5. Liu Institute for Global Issues and NBK Institute of Mining Engineering, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver Campus, BC, Canada |
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Abstract: | In water‐scarce regions of China, wastewater reuse is increasingly considered as a potential component of China's future water resource management strategy. Currently, the percentage of wastewater reuse varies substantially across Chinese provinces, but conditions leading to a high rate of wastewater reuse have not been elucidated clearly. In this work, we use fuzzy‐set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to identify the drivers of high and low percentages of wastewater reuse in water‐stressed Chinese provinces in 2013. We find that among the five conditions studied (per capita water availability, urban population, access to sea, access to urban space, and access to agricultural land), a high percentage of wastewater reuse is primarily driven by water stress and access to urban green space. Consequently, policies should consider targeting provinces with these attributes where wastewater reuse is more likely to be successful. Further, our results show that there is asymmetry in the conditions that lead to high and low percentages of wastewater reuse, and that the drivers for and against reuse identified in this study are not completely analogous to those identified in previous studies. As such, the drivers for and against wastewater reuse should not be generalized without due consideration of the local context. |
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Keywords: | China non‐policy conditions qualitative comparative analysis wastewater reuse urban green space water stress
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