Effects of the policy and human intervention on the infrastructure-environment nexus in China

With the outstanding investment in infrastructure during the past decades, the evaluation of the infrastructure-environment nexus is highly required to achieve the sustainable development of economy, resources and environment, as well as human being. This study analyzes the supply-chain-wide blue water withdrawal occurred in China for global infrastructure development, and one step further, the potential effects of policy and human intervention on future infrastructure-related environmental performances. Our results showed that the blue water withdrawal in China was main for the domestic infrastructure construction because of its rapid-growing investment, coupled with that in the United States, Japan, and India. Energy-related products (e.g., “Electricity by coal”) and primary materials (e.g., “Basic iron and steel”), highly required for the construction of infrastructure, have played relatively great roles in China’s blue water withdrawal. For the future sustainable development of infrastructure, we also addressed that efficiency improvement and nonconventional water resource utilization could cover half of the blue water gap between the current development trend and the sustainable one. In light of the synergies among infrastructure development, environmental sustainability and socioeconomic intervention, it is vital to uphold economic and environmental efficiency in the decision-making of infrastructure development.