Facility-level energy-driven water footprint and scarcity implications of Chinese data centers: a bottom-up analysis and scenario-based projection

Data centers have rapidly expanded to meet increasing computing demands. As energy-intensive infrastructures, data centers consume significant amounts of water to meet cooling requirements and support operations. Here, we present a bottom-up framework to estimate the facility-level water footprints (WFs) of data centers in China and project future pathways. First, we compile an inventory of Chinese data center operations and calculate both direct and indirect water consumption. Then, by mapping water scarcity levels, we assess the dependence of the data centers on limited water supplies. Finally, 21 scenarios are developed to model WFs trends and water scarcity implications from 2025 to 2050. The results show that in 2022, China's data centers consumed 15.7 billion m3 of water, accounting for 2.7 % of the nation's total. Notably, 72 % of the computing capacity is located in severe water-scarce regions. By 2050, simultaneous improvements in power usage efficiency, water usage efficiency, and grid decarbonization could reduce national WFs by 51.5–58.3 % compared with the baseness as usual scenario, alleviating the increased water consumption driven by the Eastern Data and Western Computing Project in water-scarce regions such as Gansu and Ningxia Provinces. This study fills a gap in understanding the water consumption of Chinese data centers, highlighting the urgent need to incorporate water resource limitations into planning for sustainable digital infrastructure.