Decoupling of urban economic growth and water consumption in Chongqing and Chengdu from the “production-living-ecological” perspective

•From the “Production-Living-Ecological” perspective, the Tapio decoupling model is used to measure decoupling relationship between EG and WC.•The causal chain of EG and WC is decomposed to explore internal causes.•The decoupling performance in Chongqing and Chengdu has been improving for the period of 2003 - 2019.•Population growth has a greater impact on the decoupling index of EG and WC.•Policy suggestions to achieve sustainable urban economic development and water consumption are recommended. Decoupling economic growth (EG) from water consumption (WC) is essential for the development of sustainable urban areas. To study the relationship between EG and WC of Cheng-Yu Dual-City Economic Circle from a “production-living-ecological” perspective, this paper measures the decoupling relationship between WC and GDP of Chongqing and Chengdu from 2003 to 2019 based on the Tapio decoupling model. By introducing population and industrial growth, the causal-chain decomposition model is then used to decompose the decoupling index into three factors. We found that the relationship between EG and WC in Chongqing and Chengdu decoupled weakly and strongly, which means that there is a trend of healthy and sustainable development. The decoupling relationship of production water is similar to that of the total water consumption, while the production water and the ecological water use are quite different from the total water consumption. For its driving influencing factors, population growth has a greater impact on the decoupling index of EG and WC. Drawing on the above findings of present paper, corresponding development suggestions are proposed to facilitate the health and sustainable development of the Cheng-Yu Dual-City Economic Circle.