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The South-to-North Water Diversion Project in China is the world's largest water transfer project, aiming to address water shortages in northern China by channeling water from the water-rich southern regions. Water resources in Tianjin have long been in severe deficit, with excessive groundwater extraction causing significant surface subsidence, negatively impacting urban infrastructure and economic development. As a result, Tianjin has become a key beneficiary of this water diversion project. To investigate the current situation of surface subsidence, we obtained the vertical displacement time series from 21 GNSS stations across Tianjin from 2011 to 2021 and analyzed overall subsidence changes and rehabilitation status. Results indicate that no clear surface subsidence was observed in the northern regions of Tianjin due to groundwater extraction mainly in unconfined aquifers. The southwestern region experienced the most significant surface subsidence due to overexploitation of deep groundwater, with peak cumulative subsidence exceeding 600 mm during the study period. The central, eastern, and southeastern coastal regions also faced severe surface subsidence with cumulative amounts ranging from 100 mm to 400 mm. The alleviation of subsidence predominantly benefits from continuous water supply from the South to North Water Diversion Project, which resulted in most stations significantly slowing down or even stabilizing their settlement rates after 2018. Therefore, the South-to-North Water Diversion Project plays a crucial role in addressing the persistent water resource shortage and mitigating long-term surface subsidence in Tianjin by ensuring a continuous water supply and significantly reducing the need for groundwater extraction. Our findings indicate positive measures, such as water diversion projects and water management policies, can serve as valuable references for other regions around the world facing similar water scarcity and groundwater overexploitation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tianjin takes Binhai New Area to accelerate the development and opening as a starting point to change the development mode and to respond to the world financial crisis as an opportunity to achieve a breakthrough with a new round rise. The practices and experience of Tianjin can be summed up in five points as following: Adhere to change the mode of development as a strategic theme; adhere to the sustainable development of the resource- saving environmental protection as a strategic measures; adhere to uphold the overall coordination of the economic and social development and social harmony as an important goal; adhere to persist in reformation and opening up innovation as a durable power; adhere to people-oriented to improve people's livelihood as a fundamental purpose. Tianjin's experience has great inspiration to the country, the most important are: basing on reality, to grasp the general trend, to tackle tough, to turn crises into opportunities; to change the development mode, the efforts to achieve economic and social development and accelerate the development and coordination of the fundamental unity of purpose; to play system advantages to the new growth pole of the deepening of reform and opening up drive and economic sustainable development. There are some problems for Tianjin's continuous development should be researched as following: On the relationship of the economic center of Bohai Sea and the North to play the role between the executive departments and regions; on the development of high- end manufacturing industries, modem service industry and high- end innovation; on accelerating economic growth driven by consumption, investment and export rather than investment and exports. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]