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Achieving high-quality economic development under the new development pattern has become an inevitable requirement for China’s economic development. Correctly calculating the value of water resources and optimizing the price mechanism of water resources is one of the important guarantees for promoting the high-quality development of the regional economy. Based on this fact, this paper takes Hubei Province as an example to construct a coupling relationship model between water resources and economic high-quality development and to evaluate the coupling coordination between the two. And then, the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation model is used to evaluate the value of water resources in Hubei Province, and recalculate its water price. The results show that Hubei province now is a lagging development of water resources, and the current water price is far lower than assessed. The government should improve the mechanism of water price which should be driven by innovation to adjust the water use structure, finally achieve high-quality economic development of Hubei Province. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is distinct from existing studies on water resources carrying capacity which usually use dimensionless data to represent trend and status of water resources carrying capacity. Here, on the grounds of the most stringent water resource management system and following the principles of water determining population, water determining city scale, water determining production and so on, water resources carrying capacity prediction model was established. The water resources carrying capacity was represented by population, which can directly reflect the status of water resources. Under the rigid constraints of water use quantity and water use efficiency, six scenarios were set to predict China's maximum population in 2030. The results demonstrated that the maximum population in each scenario is close to 1.45 billion of National Population Development Plan. It means water resources rigid constraints can support population and economic growth at the socio-economic development current pace and path. Total water use quantity will not break through the limit of 800-900 billion m3 when achieving the expected goals of social and economic development, not even more than 700 billion m3. Meanwhile, in order to relieve water resources stress, to improve water resources carrying capacity, and to accelerate construction of a water-saving society, some suggestions were put forward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water quality evaluation is fundamental for water resources management. In this study, a water quality index (WQI) was constructed to evaluate water quality in an estuary region. First, principal component analysis and the Bartlett method were used to select more important water quality parameters from multivariables. Second, quality curves and weights of selected parameters were assigned, and then WQI scores were calculated. The WQI method was applied to the Eastern Pearl River Delta in China as a case study. Results showed that water quality in the upstream area and the coastal region was better than in the central delta, with an average WQI of 72, 55 and 14, respectively. Results further revealed that water quality in the coastal region was more variable (the standard variation of WQIs is near 20) due to more rapid changes in hydrologic features, while water quality in the inland area was more stable (the standard variation is around 10). Comparison between the WQI and fuzzy evaluation methods indicated the reliability of the WQI method. This WQI method can evaluate water quality in the estuarine delta area well, and statistical techniques used in this paper can be applied in different geographical areas considering their specific characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Groundwater is an important water source to support China's economic and social development. Since the 1970s, China, especially the north region, has started to intensively pump groundwater as a water supply for agricultural irrigation, industry and city expansion. To meet the water demand due to the rapid development of the economy and society, groundwater is continuously and disorderly exploited to a great extent for a prolonged time in some regions in China, besides faulty operation and management, and insufficient emphasis on protection, which leads to severe problems of groundwater over-exploitation and contamination. In recent years, the Chinese government has attached great importance to groundwater protection. This paper illustrates the general ideas and strategies of groundwater protection and management in China from the aspects of over-exploitation control, quality protection, water ecosystem protection, and implementation of the strictest water management systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Firefly algorithm (FA) is an effective optimization technique based on swarm intelligence, which has been successfully applied to various practical engineering problems. In this paper, a new dynamic FA (called NDFA) is proposed for demand estimation of water resources in Nanchang city of China. First, a dynamic parameter strategy is used to avoid manually adjusting the step factor. Second, three estimation models in different forms (linear, exponential and hybrid) are developed in terms of the historical water use and local economic structure. Third, normalization method is utilized to eliminate the influences of different units of data. In the experiments, water use in Nanchang city from 2003 to 2015 is considered as a case study. The data from 2003 to 2012 are used for finding the optimal weights of the models, and the rest of data (2013–2015) are applied to test the models. Computational results show that all five FA variants can achieve promising solutions. The proposed NDFA obtains better performance than four other FA variants, and its prediction accuracy is up to 97.91%. Finally, the water demand in Nanchang city from 2017 to 2020 is predicted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water reuse is a cost-effective solution that is carried out in many water-shortage countries on different levels. China, which is the most populous country in the world, is facing a serious water crisis, with great demand and feasibility to use reclaimed water to deal with freshwater shortage and pollution. Although much progress has been made, challenges and problems still exist, which hinder the development of the water reuse market. Accordingly, a strategy should be made from a sustainable use perspective. In this paper, the driving forces, the situations of applications, the social institutions and cultural backgrounds related to water reuse in China are reviewed and presented by a literature review and survey. The obstacles and challenges are discussed from management system, safety of reclaimed water quality, economy and policy perspectives. Beijing and Tianjin are selected for case studies in some aspects. Through review and analysis, it can be concluded that the management system, price system, safe supply of reclaimed water and supported policy are the main factors affecting the development of water reuse in China. The paper also identifies strategies for further sustainable and safe water reuse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the dynamic interface of state-water users' relationships in large-scale surface irrigation in India and China, to inquire to what extent the issues encountered in large-scale irrigation management and governance are independent of regime characteristics. Though operating in very different overall political regimes, China and India exhibit strong similarities in the way a central state has attempted to relate with local water users, in the types of policy instruments deployed to shape that relationship, and in the problems encountered. Both China and India have a long history of state involvement in irrigation management. Both saw massive expansion after the late 1940s. The state then tried to extend its control in response to 'underutilisation' of the created infrastructure, revenue shortfalls and perceived inefficiencies and yield gaps. In recent decades the policy approaches have, at least rhetorically, emphasised water users' self-management and governance, including financial self-management/cost recovery. In both countries the instrument for this has been Water User Associations. Results have been mixed, to say the least, on all counts. Larger institutional and policy characteristics adhering to the problematic of the state-user interface subvert stated reform objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Severe water pollution is among the top policy priorities in both China and India. This paper undertakes a comparative case analysis to examine efforts in combating river pollution in two major rivers - the Yangtze in China and the Ganga in India. Our analysis suggests that efforts in combating river pollution in the two Asian giants have encountered substantial challenges, such as the lack of comprehensive legal mechanisms to control pollution at the basin level, the lack of coordination among multiple government agencies, and significant gaps in policy implementation. Our analysis also points out considerable differences between China and India in institutional structure, regulatory approaches and policy instruments in dealing with river pollution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Water rights are widely regarded as a crucial component to enhance efficient water use and for meeting a country's water resource challenges. This article presents a framework for analyzing and comparing the similarities as well as differences of the water rights systems between India and China. The article relies on the method of document research and comparative analysis to compare general characteristics of India and China's water rights systems based on six evaluation indicators and evaluation principles. Using this analytical framework, this paper compares the implementation effects of the water rights systems in terms of the degree of meeting water resources demand, conflict-resolution means and the protection of water resources. Our findings provide insights for the reformation of the water rights systems and bring out lessons that other developing countries can learn from India and China's experiences. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to alleviate the water supply-demand problem, a flood resource utilization strategy is proposed, called 'Flood Utilization'. The strategy focuses on building large-scale water conservancy facilities and improving management measures. This paper presents the probability analysis of floodwater utilization in a confluence area, where a tributary joins a main river. Baicheng is used as the study area, where the Taoer River joins the Nenjiang River. After a large number of analyses, the main results and conclusions are as follows: First, the upper limit of available floodwater corresponds to the Taoer River's flood with a 5% probability of occurrence. Secondly, there are compensation characteristics between the two rivers which mean that the Nenjiang River can supply water to the Taoer River area. The analysis of monthly runoff, shows that there are compensation characteristics in 50.9% of the data period. The compensation rates (CRs) for the months from June to October are 0.2, 0.27, 0.25, 0.27, and 0.2, respectively. Thirdly, the differences in the runoff characteristics show that it is suitable for floodwater utilization. Finally, it is proposed that floodwater utilization measures are based on local conditions, such as the regional water storage characteristics and the runoff characteristics of the two rivers, and should be applied for different periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drought is one of the most harmful natural hazards in the Upper Reaches of the Yangtze River basin (URYR) in the mid-west part of China. Alterations in precipitation will affect the severity of drought. The nonparametric Mann-Kendall (MK) test was used in this paper to examine the trend of precipitation and the standardized precipitation index (SPI) was adopted to analyze the spatial-temporal variations of meteorological drought over different time scales in the last 50 years. The MK test value of precipitation indicated that, for most of the URYR showed an increasing trend of precipitation in the months of January, February, March and June, mainly in the Min-Tuojiang, Jialingjiang and Wujiang sub-basins and a decreasing trend was observed in August to December. The most obvious decreasing trend of precipitation occurred in the Jialingjiang, upper mainstream and Wujiang sub-basins in September, with a rate ranging from -7.89mm/10 years to -39.36mm/10 years. The results show that the SPI is applicable in the URYR basin. The number of severe droughts differed among the six sub-basins, i.e., a more obvious 3-month drought takes place in the middle of the upper mainstream, Wujiang sub-basins and the southeast of Jialingjiang sub-basin and other droughts in 6, 9 and 12 month timescales have the same effect in these three sub-basins. The outcomes of the paper could provide references for droughts mitigation, local water resources management and agriculture decision making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A key issue in water resources management in China is the adoption of a total volume control framework of water supply at a regional level corresponding to socioeconomic development. This requires more efficient water demand management in order to achieve a balance between water supply and demand. The purpose of this paper is to conduct a thorough analysis of the water use structure of production sectors in order to identify the major impact factors and thus provide insights for demand management policy design. Taking Jiangsu Province as a case study, we compile a series of extended input-output (I-O) tables at a constant price and establish an I-O structural decomposition model. The major factors leading to change in water use by production sectors (primary, secondary and tertiary) in the Jiangsu Province during five time periods from 1997-2010 are categorized into structure effect, water use efficiency effect, and demand effect for each of three levels: (1) aggregated sectors, (2) sub-aggregated sectors, and (3) individual sectors. Within the study period, the demand effect consistently leads to an increase in water utilization and the increase effect becomes weaker over time, while the other two factors consistently lead to a decrease in water utilization and their dampening effect becomes stronger. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In order to achieve a more sustainable mode of development, the government of China declared its intention to build a harmonious socialist society, and the Ministry of Water Resources (MWR) proposed 'human-water harmony'. However, some problems still exist in China's water resources management (CWRM), which affect management performance and trigger acute water crisis. Nowadays, the human-water relationship in China is disharmonious and the relationship between human activities and water resources has entered into a vicious cycle. This paper concluded that achieving human-water harmony is a necessary and rational pathway to solve China's water problems on the basis of reviewing the development course of CWRM. In order to achieve human-water harmony in China, many impressive efforts both in terms of policies and measures have been made. Ultimately, they pointed out that human-water harmony can be achieved through our tireless efforts as long as people hold the belief that the idea of 'human-water harmony' is the first and the foremost way to deal with the contradiction between human activities and water resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A co-governance program for five waters (CPFW), including sewage treatment, flood prevention, drainage, water supply and saving, is an innovative concept in water resource management. It includes current and near future system projects and advanced management policies for water utilization and protection. In this paper, the scientific connotation of CPFW is explained by multidisciplinary theory. Based on current guidance and technology, evaluation targets and water management countermeasures are specified. Combining hydraulic engineering and their characteristics, operable approaches for CPFW are suggested for projects' designation and construction. These approaches of CPFW are applied in a typical area. Systematic projects are composed of sewage interception projects, efficient water supply projects and hydraulic projects with ecological engineering. With the guidance of CPFW, all projects are connected together and their integrated benefits are evaluated in water saving, sewage drainage, increase in environmental capacity and ensuring security. The results show the CPFW is valuable and available both in theory and in practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Mass media are important sources of information about water issues that significantly influence civil life. This paper presents a content analysis approach to contextualize the water issues reporting of the People's Daily. The intent of our approach is to uncover the reporting pattern of water issues and the relationship between government policies and their news reports. Using the newspaper with the second widest circulation in China, the content analysis approach reveals that the document frequency of water issues had shown a flat trend since the 1970s. Water-related articles were given more significance by providing additional front pages. The results suggest that newspapers have been focusing more on the recreational function and protection of water since the 1980s. The results also show that there was a relative shortage of coverage on certain types of water-related central government documents. Lacking persistence was another feature of policy propaganda. These factors could work against public engagement in water issues and undermine the public's understanding of and confidence in water management measures. We believe these results could help water resource managers to interpret media content of water issues and improve the propaganda of their policies, which would contribute to better administration of water resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an assessment framework that analyses the impacts of climate change on the water diversion strategies of a water transfer project in China. A water diversion strategy consists of high and low water levels as well as related diversion flows in four operating periods: pre-flood, flood, post-flood and non-flood periods. The optimal water diversion problem is defined as a multi-objective problem with two conflicting objectives: minimising human and ecological water supply shortages, and solved by the popular non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm II (NSGA-II). The derived Pareto- optimal solutions are then evaluated using the predicted runoffs based on an ensemble of three general circulation models under three climate scenarios. Results obtained from the study catchment show that intra-annual distribution of future runoff changes. The optimal solutions on the Pareto front have greatly varying performance under a climate scenario. It is critical to reveal the different impacts of climate change on the water shortages over the four operating periods, in particular when an increase of water shortage in one period is masked by a reduction in one or more periods. This study illustrates that the framework can be used to identify resilient water diversion strategies to mitigate the potential impacts of climate change on the operation of a water transfer project. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China is facing many challenges in the water sector while implementing integrated water resources management (IWRM). Another daunting task -- adapting to water-related impacts of climate change, is also challenging China's water managers. These challenges have been posing threats to China's economic, social and environmental development. While separate efforts in promoting IWRM and climate change adaptation have been made, the approach of mainstreaming climate change adaptation strategy within IWRM is seldom studied. Attempting to fill the gap, this paper argues that there is great potential in synergizing them after analysing their distinctions and common points. By developing climate-proofing strategies within IWRM, mainstreaming is able to minimize adverse water-related climate change risks and maximize the benefits of policies and plans. In this study, entry points of mainstreaming climate change adaptation in the sustaining environment of IWRM and its process will be identified and analysed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To achieve an efficient use and allocation of limited water resources and thus resolve increasing water use conflicts due to fast rising societal water demands, in 2000, the Chinese government started a management strategy of 'Construction of a Water Saving Society (WSS)'. It is guided by the principle that socio-economic development should consider the carrying capacity of the ecosystem and focuses on institutional innovation, building on the water rights concept. This paper explores the innovation process during the transition towards WSS by investigating the development course of the innovation process during the transition towards WSS, and the adaptive capacity of the existing water management regime underlying the innovation process. Accordingly, an analysis framework consisting of three types of governance activities and factors determining a regime's adaptive capacity was developed, based on the theory of transition management and adaptive governance. The Tianjin and Zhangye WSS experiments were selected for a deep understanding of local innovations. It is revealed that co-evolution of all three types of governance activities that are claimed to be essential for transition has taken place. However, the current adaptive capacity of the regime still needs further enhancement to support the transition towards the desired WSS in China. Finally, some general insights are provided for policy innovations in other political economies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The aim of this paper is to incorporate the water resources into the unified resources accounting based on scientific objectivity so as to present a brief portrait of the significance of water for the resource conversion and management of the national-scale society in a systems ecological perspective. The water resources in sustaining the human society are incorporated into the total exergy budget and national-scale social exergy accounting framework, not only by accounting the conventionally usable water flowing through society regarding seawater as reference environment, but also by introducing the evaporation exergy of freshwater as essential investment from the hydrological cycle. A case study of the Chinese society 2001–2005 is conducted, with the societal system broken down into seven sectors, i.e., extraction, conversion, agriculture, industry, transportation, tertiary and households sectors, to explore the resource utilization structure based on the proposed accounting method. Typical results for China 2005 showed that the total net input of the societal conventional resource exergy was 87.9EJ, of which 75.4EJ was from mineral resources and 22.6EJ from other resources, while the water resource exergy input amounted to 105.1EJ, which contributed 54.5% of the total resources exergy investment to the total society. Finally, the exergetic resource use intensities (RUIs) for six sectors were calculated, with the results that RUIs of agriculture and conversion sectors are much higher than those derived from conventional resource accounting. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Freshwater inflow requirements (FIRs for short), which considered the requirements for protection of drinking water sources as well as the first-grade state protection wildlife (Acipenser sinensis) in larval periods, were analyzed in this paper for the Yangtze River Estuary, China. Based on the different levels of salinity objectives and the relationship between salinity and the freshwater inflows, the FIRs for the Yangtze River Estuary were determined. The estuary FIRs were determined based on the habitat ecosystem health from April to November with minimum and medium levels, from March to December with high level; and on the requirement of protection of drinking water sources in other months of the year, accordingly. Combined the salinity objectives of drinking water sources and critical habitat in the Yangtze River Estuary, the FIRs for the estuary are calculated to be 938.2×109, 729.4×109 and 615.5×109 m3 in the whole year with different levels, which is equal to 100.8%, 78.4% and 66.2% of the average annual river discharge for the Yangtze River Estuary, respectively. Annual river discharges can satisfy the medium and minimum levels of FIRs for the estuary. However, the temporal variation of the actual runoff has distinct difference from the FIRs for the estuary in critical periods (May, July and August) for the habitat ecosystem, 5% of the FIRs for the estuary should be maintained from December to February for protection of drinking water sources. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

As China continues to sustain high rates of economic growth, it is important to better understand patterns of resource use within the Chinese economy and the vulnerability of its growth to resource scarcity. This paper examines relationships between two of China's scarcest resources--energy and water--focusing on the energy implications of water use. Based on an analysis of economy-wide resource flows using China's input-output tables, we draw three overarching conclusions: First, the energy used both directly and indirectly in providing non-agricultural water currently represents only a small fraction of China's total energy consumption. However, this share is set to increase as the country expands its water treatment capacity and hydraulic infrastructure. A lifecycle assessment framework for evaluating these projects would aid policymakers as they choose between more and less energy-intensive modes of water provision. Second, energy-water price interactions are currently of little relevance to policymakers because water prices are low, but the high electricity-intensity of water treatment facilities and their need to recover costs may change this situation. Third, water "migration" from agriculture to non-agricultural uses will have important energy dimensions, which will be important for policymakers to bear in mind as they design water pricing and conservation efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]