High-resolution mapping of monthly industrial water withdrawal in China from 1965 to 2020

Abstract. High-quality gridded data on industrial water use is vital for research and water resource management. However, such data in China usually have low accuracy. In this study, we developed a gridded dataset of monthly industrial water withdrawal (IWW) for China, namely, the China industrial water withdrawal dataset (CIWW), which spans a 56-year period from 1965 to 2020 at a spatial resolution of 0.1° and 0.25°. We utilized >400,000 records of industrial enterprises, monthly industrial product output data, continuous statistical IWW records from 1965 to 2020, to facilitate spatial scaling, seasonal allocation, and long-term temporal coverage in the developing the dataset. The CIWW dataset presented significant improvement in characterizing the spatial and seasonal patterns of IWW dynamics in China, with a much higher accuracy at fine scale while ensuring consistency with statistical records. The CIWW dataset, together with its methodology, and auxiliary data, is useful for water resource management and for research in hydrology, geography, environment, and sustainability sciences. This new dataset is now available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.21901074.v1 (Hou and Li, 2023).