Rapid economic development and population growth inChina go hand-in-hand with increasing urbanisation, in-volving growing mega-cities, industrialization, and inten-sified agriculture. As a result, natural resources areincreasingly stressed and productive management strate-gies towards sustainable planning are urgently needed.Pollution containing hazardous substances for environ-mental and human health, depletion of water resources as aresult of overexploitation, soil degradation and air pollutionin mega-cities (such as Beijing or Shanghai) are increasingat an alarming rate. Consequently, the protection of aquaticecosystems and the security of drinking water provision arebecoming an increasing challenge in water management.The Chinese government recognized the importance andcomplexity of the situation and has initiated a programentitled ‘‘Major Program of Science and Technology forWater Pollution and Governance’’ (2006–2020) (MajorWater Program). While shortages resulting from regionalresource depletion have led to plans for large-scale watertransport from distant water-rich areas of China (WaterDiversion Project), the water quality problems in otherareas require efficient, flexible, and site-specific solutionsand overall management concepts. China is internationallycooperating with many countries to tackle the severeenvironmental problems and learning from their experi-ences. In particular, China can benefit from the lessonslearnt in Germany concerning the rehabilitation of waterresources in areas heavily affected by chemical industryand mining after the reunification in 1989. German–Chi-nese cooperation in water sciences started over 25 yearsago and is dealing now with increasing challenges in the21st century (Chen et al. 2015). Under the umbrella of‘‘International Partnerships for Sustainable Technologiesand Services for Climate Protection and the Environment’’(CLIENT) under the ‘‘Research for Sustainable Develop-ment’’ framework programme the Federal Ministry ofEducation and Research of Germany (BMBF) started aseries of research projects supporting the Chinese MajorWater Program in several regions, the lakes, Taihu, Chaohuand Dianchi, as well as the Liao River Basin (Fig. 1).The Liao River Basin is located in northeast China withtwo river systems, one system is the Liao River formed byconverging Xiliao River and Dongliao River, and the othersystem is the Daliao River formed by converging HunRiver and Taizi River (Fig. 1). The province of Liaoningderived its name from the river. Shenyang is the provincialcapital of Liaoning. Liaoning was one of the first provincesin China to industrialize and heavy industry led to severeenvironmental pollution including the water environment.Liaoning has the largest economy of Northeast Chinacovering a wide range of industries, such as metallurgy,petroleum, chemical industries, pulp and paper making,pharmaceutical industry, printing and dyeing, machinery,electronics, metal refining, construction materials, ore andcoal mining, etc. The Liaohe-Songhuajiang River Basinbelongs to the priority areas of the Chinese Major WaterProgram. The Chinese central government launched a‘‘Revitalizing Northeast China and Other Old IndustrialBases’’ campaign (2005, http://www.china.org.cn/e-news/