Abstract: The development of urbanization in the Yangtze River economic belt provides a strong driving force for industrialization. But at the same time, the rapid increase of industrial water has made the contradiction between supply and demand of water resources more  sharper. Based on the panel data of the 11th Five-Year Plan and the 12th Five-Year Plan, this paper studies the decoupling of industrial water use from urbanization in the provinces of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, and examines the influencing factors of industrial water consumption by logarithmic Dee exponent method. The results shown as follows: ①From 2006 to 2015, urbanization of the Yangtze River Economic Belt showed a decoupling state for industrial water use. However, the state in the period of the 11th Five-Year Plan was weak, while became strong in the period of the 12th Five-Year Plan. ②During the period of this study, there was a great difference in time and space between provinces and cities in the Yangtze River Economic Zone. The Yangtze River Delta Economic Zone, the economic zone of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and the economic zone of the upper reaches of the Yangtze River were obviously different in decoupling states. ③Among the four effects of industrial water in the process of urbanization, the technical effect inhibits industrial water consumption, while the output effect promotes industrial water consumption. The influences of structural effects and population effects on industrial water were various with time and space. On the basis of this, this paper suggests that the efficiency of of industrial water use should be improved through technical water saving, promoting balance development among the provinces.
Key words：urbanization; industrial water use; decoupling model; LMDI model; Yangtze River Economic Belt