2026-10-11T08:54:48Z https://api.figshare.com/v2/oai

oai:figshare.com:article/33986437 2026-09-24T15:22:30Z category_7 category_21 category_272 category_873 category_734 category_64 portal_63 item_type_3 month_year_09_2026

When Does Moving Computing West Save Water? A Project-Specific Cooling and Break-Even Analysis of China’s East–Data–West–Computing Strategy Shifa Zhong (1685533) Medicine Biotechnology Environmental Sciences not elsewhere classified Chemical Sciences not elsewhere classified Biological Sciences not elsewhere classified Cancer residual campus demand hourly weather data facility energy overhead 2015 – 2024 yielding 48 comparisons related water use determine water savings level eastern alternatives destination project crosses water factors water configurations 48 pairs eastern alternative − 63 tower designs threshold set specific cooling separate constraint rejection model public evidence physical heat otherwise represented matched wet four named explicit climate even analysis cooling operation cooler climates climate alone china ’ changes ranging central assumptions based scenarios advantage depends 4 %. China’s East–Data–West–Computing strategy places data centers in cooler climates, but climate alone does not determine water savings. This study combines public cooling evidence, hourly weather data for 2015–2024, a physical heat-rejection model, and provincial electricity-water factors in a project-specific break-even analysis. An audit of 93 mapped records identifies 12 unique western hub projects and four named or cluster-level eastern alternatives, yielding 48 comparisons. Cooling operation is reconstructed from public evidence where possible and otherwise represented by explicit climate-based scenarios. Under the central assumptions, western combined operational water intensity is lower in 27 of 48 pairs, with changes ranging from −63.5% to +110.4%. Against Guangdong, matched wet-tower designs and facility energy efficiency yield higher mean western consumption because of electricity-related water use. Low-water configurations can reverse this penalty, but their advantage depends on the eastern alternative, facility energy overhead, and electricity supply. Local water stress adds a separate constraint on residual campus demand. Westward siting therefore saves operational water only when the destination project crosses the threshold set by the eastern alternative it replaces. 2026-09-24T00:00:00Z Dataset Dataset 10.1021/acs.estlett.6c00740.s002 https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/When_Does_Moving_Computing_West_Save_Water_A_Project-Specific_Cooling_and_Break-Even_Analysis_of_China_s_East_Data_West_Computing_Strategy/33986437 CC BY-NC 4.0