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Ecological restoration is essential to sustain the important production, regulation, and cultural services that fresh waters provide. This chapter reviews the success of freshwater restoration actions in the light of current policies, including current understanding on the scale of restoration needed and timescales in recovery. Freshwater restoration in developing economies is still at an early stage in many countries, with gross organic and industrial pollution being widespread and often an increasing problem. The first step in developing any restoration plan is identifying targets for restoration and assessment of the cause of degradation. This requires monitoring data and appropriate diagnostic tools. The chapter focuses on restoration approaches within, or in close proximity to, waterbodies themselves. Most lake restoration programmes require external loading reductions to be in place before other approaches are considered. The concept of preventative management to off-set projected effects of climate change is gaining ground in freshwater sciences.

© The Author(s), 2018. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Lu, Y., Wang, R., Shi, Y., Su, C., Yuan, J., Johnson, A. C., Jenkins, A., Ferrier, R. C., Chen, D., Tian, H., Melillo, J., Song, S., & Ellison, A. M. Interaction between pollution and climate change augments ecological risk to a coastal ecosystem. Ecosystem Health and Sustainability, 4(7), (2018): 161-168, doi:10.1080/20964129.2018.1500428., Pollution and climate change are among the most challenging issues for countries with developing economies, but we know little about the ecological risks that result when these pressures occur together. We explored direct effects of, and interactions between, environmental pollution and climate change on ecosystem health in the Bohai Sea region of Northern China. We developed an integrated approach to assess ecological risks to this region under four scenarios of climate change. Although ecological risks to the system from pollution alone have been declining, interactions between pollution and climate change have enhanced ecological risks to this coastal/marine ecosystem. Our results suggest that current policies focused strictly on pollution control alone should be changed to take into account the interactive effects of climate change so as to better forecast and manage potential ecological risks., This study was supported by the National Key R & D Program of China (2017YFC0505704), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41420104004 and No. 71761147001), the Key Project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. KFZD-SW-322), and the Key Technology R&D Program of Tianjin (16YFXTSF00380).

After 40 years of reform and “opening up,” China has made remarkable economic progress. Such economic prosperity, however, has been coupled with environmental degradation. We analyze diverse long-term data to determine whether China is experiencing a decoupling of economic growth and environmental impacts, and where China stands with respect to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in terms of reducing regional division, urban-rural gap, social inequality, and land-based impacts on oceans. The results highlight that China’s desire to achieve “ecological civilization” has resulted in a decoupling trend for major pollutants since 2015, while strong coupling remains with CO2 emissions. Progress has been made in health care provision, poverty reduction, and gender equity in education, while income disparity continues between regions and with rural-urban populations. There is a considerable way to go toward achieving delivery of the SDGs; however, China’s progress toward economic prosperity and concomitant sustainability provides important insights for other countries.

After 40 years of reform and “opening up,” China has made remarkable economic progress. Such economic prosperity, however, has been coupled with environmental degradation. We analyze diverse long-term data to determine whether China is experiencing a decoupling of economic growth and environmental impacts, and where China stands with respect to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in terms of reducing regional division, urban-rural gap, social inequality, and land-based impacts on oceans. The results highlight that China’s desire to achieve “ecological civilization” has resulted in a decoupling trend for major pollutants since 2015, while strong coupling remains with CO2 emissions. Progress has been made in health care provision, poverty reduction, and gender equity in education, while income disparity continues between regions and with rural-urban populations. There is a considerable way to go toward achieving delivery of the SDGs; however, China’s progress toward economic prosperity and concomitant sustainability provides important insights for other countries.

Pollution and climate change are among the most challenging issues for countries with developing economies, but we know little about the ecological risks that result when these pressures occur together. We explored direct effects of, and interactions between, environmental pollution and climate change on ecosystem health in the Bohai Sea region of Northern China. We developed an integrated approach to assess ecological risks to this region under four scenarios of climate change. Although ecological risks to the system from pollution alone have been declining, interactions between pollution and climate change have enhanced ecological risks to this coastal/marine ecosystem. Our results suggest that current policies focused strictly on pollution control alone should be changed to take into account the interactive effects of climate change so as to better forecast and manage potential ecological risks.

China currently faces a water resource sustainability problem which is likely to worsen into the future. The Chinese government is attempting to address this problem through legislative action, but faces severe challenges in delivering its high ambitions. The key challenges revolve around the need to balance water availability with the need to feed a growing population under a changing climate and its ambitions for increased economic development. This is further complicated by the complex and multi-layered government departments, often with overlapping jurisdictions, which are not always aligned in their policy implementation and delivery mechanisms. There remain opportunities for China to make further progress and this paper reports on the outcomes of a science-to-policy roundtable meeting involving scientists and policy-makers in China. It identifies, in an holistic manner, new opportunities for additional considerations for policy implementation, continued and new research requirements to ensure evidence-based policies are designed and implemented and identifies the needs and opportunities to effectively monitor their effectiveness. Other countries around the world can benefit from assessing this case study in China.