Multi-dimensional interest game between reservoir and city stakeholders in the Yellow River Basin: a case study of the lower reaches

Abstract

Reservoirs in sediment-laden rivers can bring multiple benefits, and the calculation and redistribution of these considerable benefits are the premises to ensure the efficient operation of reservoirs. Firstly, the benefits of social economy, ecological environment, flood discharge, and sediment transport under the joint operation of reservoirs are uniformly measured based on the emergy theory. Secondly, the stakeholders are divided into reservoir and city groups. A two-tier gains allocation model is established based on the Nash bargaining model and multi-attribute decision making theory. Finally, taking the lower reaches of the Yellow River, Sanmenxia Reservoir, and Xiaolangdi Reservoir as cases, the multi-dimensional benefits of reservoirs under the two operation modes in the face of typical floods are calculated, and the gains are distributed among stakeholders. The results show that: (1) Although the overall benefit of the system is optimal under one scheduling mode, 7/17 of the stakeholders prefer another mode. (2) Comparing the two operation modes of the reservoir group, it is found that XLD and SMX can improve the overall benefit of 4.12E + 09yuan at the cost of their sediment discharge benefits of 3.08E + 09yuan and 2.82E + 06yuan. (3) After gains distribution, the profit of all stakeholders can be optimized to varying degrees. This study broadens the dimension of benefit accounting under the joint operation of cascade reservoirs and the category of stakeholders in the gain allocation, which is conducive to promoting the ecological protection and sustainable development of sediment-laden rivers.