How Can China Achieve A Sustainable Development of Shale Gas? Implications of River Chief System to water governance for shale gas in China

Abstract

Along with China’s ambitious strategy for shale gas development, water contamination risks with shale gas extraction has aroused great attention. Meanwhile, an innovative water management mechanism called as ‘River Chief System’ has been popularizing around China to improve the river water quality efficiently. Could this mechanism be available in shale gas water risk management?And how could it be adapted to improve the sustainable development of shale gas?Therefore, this paper starts by a discussion on the logic of River Chief System’ success and worries; then, a comprehensive examination of current multi-channel governance system of shale gas in China is presented to explore the dilemmas in its water governance; and a causal loop model is built to clarify interrelations among these dilemmas. The result identifies that River Chief System’s superiorities which can be learned are mainly reflected in clear responsibility, authority and multi-sectoral collaboration system. However, its temporary “campaign-style” character, over-reliant on the commitment and capability of river chief, blurred evaluation mechanism has hindered its expanding in the long run. Accordingly, 5 policy implications based on River Chief System for the sustainable improvement of shale gas is presented.