Linking of ‘consumption-industrial production-surface water deterioration’ is essential for industrialised economies to understand the mechanism of industrial water pollution. However, such a connection may mislead policy decisions if sectoral details are lacking. This study investigated excess pollution discharge from 11,094 industrial enterprises comprising 22 economic sectors through setting discharge thresholds on 1338 water function zones in Jiangsu Province, the most industrialised province in China. We further evaluated the contribution of final consumption in Chinese provinces to excess pollution discharge in Jiangsu via a national multi-region input–output table. Notably, despite typically heavy polluting sectors contributing the maximum excess pollution discharge, high-tech manufacturing sectors had a higher level of risk for excess pollution discharge. This was attributed to the spatial agglomeration of these sectors, with enterprises typically located in industrial parks. The increasing final consumption of specific sectors in both Jiangsu and other provinces may further drive excess pollution discharge in Jiangsu.

Consumption behaviours exert pressure on water resources both locally and globally through interconnected supply chains, hindering the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals 6 (Clean water and sanitation) and 12 (Responsible consumption and production). However, it is challenging to link hotspots of water depletion across spatial scales to final consumption while reflecting intersectoral competition for water. In this study, we estimated the global exceedance of regional freshwater boundaries (RFBs) due to human water withdrawal at a 5-arcmin grid scale using 2015 data, enabling the identification of hotspots across different spatial scales. To reduce uncertainty, we used average estimates from 15 global hydrological models and 5 environmental flow requirement methods. We further attributed the hotspots of exceedance to final consumption across 245 economies and 134 sectors via the multi-region input–output model EMERGING. Our refined framework revealed previously unknown connections between regional hotspots and consumption through international trade. Notably, we found that 24% of grid-level RFB exceedance (718 km³ yr⁻¹; 95% confidence interval of 659–776 km³ yr⁻¹) was outsourced through trade, with the largest flows (52 km³ yr⁻¹; 95% confidence interval of 47–56 km³ yr⁻¹) from water-stressed South and Central Asia to arid West Asia. The demand for cereals and other agricultural products dominated global consumption-based RFB exceedance (29%), while the exports of textiles and machinery and equipment exacerbated territorial exceedance in manufacturing hubs within emerging economies. Our methodology facilitates the tracing of global hotspots of water scarcity along supply chains and the assignment of responsibilities at finer scales.

Research on blue and green water footprints (WF) for China has typically been carried out based on bottom-up and top-down approach using a single-region input–output table. However, this research typically lacks detail on the sectoral interrelationships which exist between China and its trading partners in other countries/regions of the world. Here, a multi-region input–output approach using the WIOD database was applied to quantify the blue and green WF for China in 2009. The quantification was conducted from both production (WFP) and consumption (WFC) perspectives. The results show that the total WFP for China in 2009 was 1152.2 km³, second only to India. At 1070.9 km³, China had the largest WFC volume in the world. The internal WF was 953.5 km³, taking the substantial share for both the WFC and WFP. Overall, China’s trade resulted in a net export of 53.5 km³ virtual water. In contrast, the agricultural sector resulted in a net import of 70.6 km³ virtual water to China, with United States, Brazil, and Canada acting as major suppliers. This study suggests that quantifying the WF of China at global level through a MRIO framework is a necessary step towards achieving sustainability for China’s water management.

Current agri-food production puts significant pressures on our planet. Yet which crops exceed environmental boundaries, by how much, and where remains unclear. Here we present a global, high-resolution (~9 km), crop-specific assessment of cropland environmental sustainability circa 2020, evaluating greenhouse gas emissions, nitrogen use, freshwater use, biomass appropriation, and biodiversity loss against locally-defined environmental boundaries. Less than 1% of cropland operates below all five boundaries, while one-quarter exceeds four or more, with critical hotspots in South and East Asia and across OECD countries. Boundary transgressions are largely driven by regional staple crops such as wheat, maize, and rice, with contributions varying across environmental dimensions. Yet, mapping the crops responsible for local boundary exceedances reveals strong spatial heterogeneity in the levers for sustainability transitions. Our findings provide a spatially-explicit, crop-specific diagnosis of global cropland environmental sustainability, offering a foundation for policies to steer production toward environmental targets.

Consumption behaviors exert pressure on water resources both locally and globally through interconnected supply chains, hindering the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) 6 (Clean water and sanitation) and 12 (Responsible consumption and production). However, it is challenging to link hotspots of water depletion across spatial scales to final consumption while reflecting intersectoral competition for water. Here, we estimate the global exceedance of regional freshwater boundaries (RFBs) due to human water withdrawal at a 5-arcmin grid scale using 2015 data, enabling the identification of hotspots across different spatial scales. To reduce uncertainty, we use average estimates from 15 global hydrological models and 5 environmental flow requirement methods. We further attribute the hotspots of exceedance to final consumption across 245 economies and 134 sectors via a multi-region input-output model, EMERGING. Our refined framework reveals previously unknown connections between regional hotspots and consumption through international trade. Notably, 24% of grid-level RFB exceedance (718.0 km3/yr; 95% confidence interval of 659.2-775.5 km3/yr) is outsourced through trade, with the largest flows (51.8 km3/yr; 95% confidence interval of 47.1-56.0 km3/yr) from water-stressed South-Central Asia to arid West Asia. The demand for cereals and other agricultural products dominates global consumption-based RFB exceedance (29.0%), while the exports of textiles and machinery and equipment exacerbate territorial exceedance in manufacturing hubs within emerging economies. Our analysis facilitates tracing global hotspots of water scarcity along the supply chain, and assigning responsibilities at finer scales.