Reservoir Resettlement Research Articles

Role of non-governmental organizations in post-relocation support of reservoir migrations in China: a just transition perspective

In recent decades, energy transition has been a major structural change worldwide to replace fossil fuels. Hydropower is a valuable renewable energy source which can mitigate the electricity demand of livelihoods and help to achieve the target of carbon neutrality goals. However, owing to the hydropower construction, involuntary resettles are suffering with land and socio-economic security. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) play a vital role in promoting a just transition for reservoir migrants. The present study examines the work of local NGOs in a reservoir resettlement area in China through semi-structural interviews, and participant observations followed by qualitative analysis. Study explores how the NGOs organize reservoir migrants to participate in post-relocation support (PReS) projects. The study finds that the organized participation of reservoir migrants in PReS is the key process required to achieve a just transition. Moreover, NGOs ensure that all affected reservoir migrants have equal access to development opportunities through the three linked levels of co-construction, co-management, and co-sharing through the elite-driven establishment of benefit linkages and fair benefit distribution, and ultimately achieve a standard of living for migrants. Organized participation improves the equity and sustainability of benefits for reservoir migrants, but organizing reservoir migrants requires firm support from the local, regional and national governments, and the trust of migrants in local NGOs. Findings further stated that the PRes policy still has some blank spot, therefore, it is necessary to frame robust policy frameworks to restore the livelihoods of reservoir migrants.

Evaluation of sustainable livelihood of reservoir resettlement based on the fuzzy matter-element model

Introduction: The study of sustainable livelihoods for reservoir resettlers is of great significance for consolidating the poverty alleviation achievements of China and promoting the realization of the major strategy of China’s rural revitalization.Methods: On the basis of the Sustainable Livelihood Analysis Framework of the UK Agency for International Development and the general requirements of the rural revitalization strategy on industry, ecology, rural ethos, governance and life, this paper selects the material basis, living environment and Social Adaptability which are more close to China’s national conditions and can more accurately measure the resettlers’ livelihood. These three factors have established a Comprehensive Evaluation Index System for the sustainable livelihood of the reservoir resettlers. A mathematical model based on complex fuzzy matter-element and analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is established to assess the sustainable livelihood of reservoir resettlers. Furthermore, it conducts an empirical study on the resettlement of the Danjiangkou Henan Reservoir area of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, which takes the whole of immigration in Henan Province as the research object.Results: The results show that the current survey value of the overall livelihood of the resettlers in the Danjiangkou Henan Reservoir Area of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project is 0.0085 lower than the maintaining livelihood target and 0.1725 lower than the sustainable livelihood target. Such a result indicates that the livelihood of Henan resettlers in the Danjiangkou Henan Reservoir Area of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project has reached a sustainable level overall, but its gap with the sustainable livelihood goal remains obvious, which is primarily demonstrated by economic foundation and social adaptability.Discussion: Therefore, immigration management agencies should make efforts to adjust the industrial structure, increase the income of resettlers, help resettlers integrate into the local society sooner, and promote the sustainable development of resettlers’ livelihoods.

Impact Assessment of the Implementation Effect of the Post-Relocation Support Policies of Rural Reservoir Resettlers’ Livelihoods in Energy Transition

Energy transition is a major structural change in the whole social system, and the energy system must be changed globally to replace fossil fuels. Hydropower is one of the largest sources of renewable energy in the world. However, owing to the construction of hydropower projects, involuntary resettlers are suffering from being far away from their native land, losing the land cultivated for generations and the houses they live in, and losing the social relationship network based on geography and blood ties. Based on the system evaluation theory of reservoir resettlement and referring to relevant research findings, this paper constructs a comprehensive evaluation index framework for assessing the implementation effect of the Post-Relocation Support (PReS) policy. The research region is located in Zhijin County, Bijie City, Guizhou Province, China. Accordingly, a combined method of a structural equation model and a fuzzy comprehensive evaluation model is used in this paper to analyze the implementation of the PReS policy. The results show that the total score of implementing effects of the PReS policy is 4.4, with dramatic significance. The subindex scores of the resettlers’ family income, living conditions, and production conditions; the local economy; and social stability are 4.3, 4.6, 4.4, 4.6, and 4.3, respectively, with dramatic significance. This paper has analyzed and summarized the successful practices of implementing the PReS policy for reservoir resettlers in three dimensions: poverty alleviation, beautiful home construction, and accelerating rural revitalization. Research shows that China’s rural reservoir resettlers’ PReS policy has been more effective in restoring the livelihoods of reservoir resettlers.

Benefit sharing model of hydropower development based on input perspective: a case study of Xiluodu project in China

Hydropower provides important support for achieving dual-carbon goal, but problems such as reservoir resettlement conflicts are common in developing countries, which have become a bottleneck of sustainable hydropower development. Fair distribution of benefits is the key to solve this dilemma. While the concept of benefit sharing as the fundamental guarantee for the sustainable livelihood of landless resettlers is gradually reaching consensus, the amount of benefit distribution has always been an outstanding issue. In order to quantify the amount of benefit sharing scientifically and reasonably, this paper constructs a benefit sharing model of hydropower development from the perspective of stakeholder input, and carries out a case analysis. The results indicate that the main stakeholders of hydropower projects include governments, development enterprises and reservoir resettlers. Their inputs are water or environmental resources, capital, and land resources, which produce hydropower resources. The net present value method can be used to construct the benefit sharing model. In this model, sharing amount of resettlers and other major stakeholders is the product of the sum of the present value of the net cash flow of hydropower projects and the proportion of their respective input. In view of many uncertainties, the grey prediction method and Monte Carlo simulation method are used to solve the model. The case of the Xiluodu hydropower station in China proves the rationality and operability of the model. The study also shows with reference to the model’s calculation results, a shared development fund can be established by drawing money from electricity generation income to ensure long-term benefits for resettlers, while considering the reasonable benefit of other stakeholders. The two are connected. It is expected to achieve a new pattern of mutual benefit and multi-win outcome, which are characterized by stable power station revenue, prosperity and stability of the reservoir area, and increased benefit and common wealth of resettlers. This paper may provide a convenient and novel analysis tool for benefit sharing systems.

Evolutionary Game Analysis of Post-relocation Support Projects for Reservoir Resettlement: Evidence from China

Evolutionary Game Analysis of Post-relocation Support Projects for Reservoir Resettlement: Evidence from China

Factors That Influence the Livelihood Resilience of Flood Control Project Resettlers: Evidence from the Lower Yellow River, China

Land requisition and resettlement of migrants are two major parts of flood control projects. After a large land area was allocated for flood control projects, livelihood resilience of resettlers became a great challenge. In this paper, Puyang County, Taiqian County, and Fan County, Henan Province, China, are chosen for a household survey. An index system to assess farming households’ livelihood resilience is constructed. After that, regression analysis and variance analysis are adopted to examine influencing factors of resettlers’ livelihood resilience. Results suggest the following: (1) Livelihood resilience of resettled farming households is on the whole lower than that of non-resettled farming households; (2) Response to policies, family scale, livelihood strategy, and skill training are major influencing factors of resettled farming households’ livelihood resilience; (3) Compared with other types of farming households, livelihood resilience of farming households with land expropriated is significantly different. In order to enhance resettlers’ livelihood resilience, the government should expand the application scope of follow-up support policies of reservoir resettlement, enhance capability construction of resettlement management departments, strengthen support for resettlers’ employment, combine resettlement with rural revitalization strategy, and improve the social security system for flood control project resettlers.

Contributors

Previous article FreeContributorsPDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmailQR Code SectionsMoreWei Chen (陈玮) is assistant professor at the School of International and Public Affairs, Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Her research interests include comparative political economy, political economy of contemporary China, especially government-business relations in China.Emile Dirks is a postdoctoral fellow at The Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto’s Munk School, University of Toronto. His research on policing and biometric surveillance in China has been published by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute and The Citizen Lab, and he is a frequent contributor to international media on these subjects.Yuefang Duan is a professor of resettlement economics at China Three Gorges University in the School of Economics and Management and the director of the Research Center for Reservoir Resettlement. His research interests mainly focus on involuntary resettlement that is caused by development projects. He has been involved in numerous research projects and published more than 80 papers on Chinese resettlement policies and practice.Diana Fu is an associate professor of political science at the University of Toronto and nonresident fellow at Brookings Institution. Her research portfolio includes civil society, repression, authoritarian citizenship, diaspora activism, and labor politics. She is the author of the award-winning book Mobilizing without the Masses: Control and Contention in China (Cambridge, 2018). She is a member of the Royal Society of Canada’s College.Jiying Jiang (蒋佶颖) is a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego. Her research interests include Chinese politics and policymaking, legislative process, and bureaucratic politics. Her dissertation examines the political logic of ambiguity in Chinese national statutes.Shu Keng (耿曙) is a university research fellow at the School of Public Affairs, Zhejiang University. His research interests include comparative political economy, Chinese local governments, and cross-Strait relations. His recent publications include a book, Making Governments Work in China (in Chinese, 2022), a co-edited textbook, Comparative Politics (in Chinese, 2021), and several articles in China Journal, China Quarterly, and Journal of Contemporary China.Sarah Rogers is a senior lecturer in contemporary Chinese studies at the Asia Institute, University of Melbourne. She is a geographer who studies social, political, and environmental change in China. Her research interests include hydropolitics, poverty alleviation, resettlement, agrarian change, and climate adaptation. She is a chief investigator on two Australian Research Council Discovery Projects: one on the technopolitics of China’s South-North Water Transfer project (2017–22) and one on the restructuring of China’s agricultural sector (2018–22).Ju-Han Zoe Wang is a lecturer in environment and development at James Cook University. Her research expertise includes environmental governance, agrarian change, rural development, indigenous knowledge, and migration. She has been conducting research looking at the influence of various environmental, development, and agrarian interventions (e.g., NGO projects, government policy, and commodity markets) on natural resource uses in China.Brooke Wilmsen is a senior lecturer in development studies in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at La Trobe University, Australia. A former Australia Research Council DECRA holder and current Australian Research Council Discovery Project Chief Investigator on restructuring of China’s agricultural sector (2018–22), her research interests include forced displacement, involuntary resettlement, climate adaptation, social protection, and agrarian change.Siyi Zhang (张思意) is a PhD student at the Department of Sociology, Zhejiang University. Her research interests include personnel management in the public sector and local government behavior in China. She has recently published an article in China Quarterly.Tan Zhao (赵檀) is assistant professor at the School of Public Administration and Policy, Renmin University of China. His research focuses on rural governance in contemporary China. Previous article DetailsFiguresReferencesCited by The China Journal Volume 89January 2023 Published on behalf of the Australian Centre on China in the World at the Australian National University Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/722961 © 2023 The Australian National University. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Three Gorges Project Resettles Employment Willingness and Behavior Mechanism: A Grounded Theory Approach

The construction of hydropower projects has resulted in a significant number of reservoir displacements. Resettlement is unavoidably going to be a difficult problem to solve. Employment can provide endogenous economic sources for resettles as a key measure to address the issues of resettlement and development. While most researchers focused solely on its exogenous impact, they overlooked the employment psychology and internal drive intention of resettles, which are critical factors for resettlement programs to be successful. It is critical to study the resettles willingness and action mechanism for employment in order to obtain stable living resources through employment. Based on this, we use the China Three Gorges Project reservoir resettlement as an example and employ grounded theory to survey resettled employees’ employment willingness and the mechanisms underlying their employment behaviors. Our research concludes that: (1) Asset expulsion affects resettles’ employment, and the primary reason for their employment is an urge to reclaim their livelihood. (2) Government incentives and market opportunities foster favorable conditions for employment after resettlement. Family pressures and social ties are important motivators for resettled workers. (3) Individual characteristics are the most important factors influencing whether someone chooses to work. Hence, our findings could pave the way for a specific path to guide resettlement employment and serve as a reference for promoting the stable development for resettles.

Effects of the Post-Relocation Support Policy on Livelihood Capital of the Reservoir Resettlers and Its Implications—A Study in Wujiang Sub-Stream of Yangtze River of China

Hydropower energy is a clean alternative energy that has less impact on global climate change than fossil energy. However, the subsequent displacement and resettlement caused by dam construction is a global challenge perplexing the displaced population and the stability of the local socio-economic system. Without proper reconstruction and rehabilitation, the resettlers were highly risked in impoverishment. The Chinese government has formulated and implemented the post-relocation support (PReS) policy for reservoir resettlement and has continuously supported the resettlers to improve their livelihoods and socio-economic conditions since 2006. This paper focus on the 20 years dimension before and after policy formation, tests the variation of resettlers’ livelihood capital and explores the effectiveness of the PReS policy and its blank spots based on a survey of 360 affected households by three big hydroelectric dams in China. The results show that reservoir resettlers would have caused the overall decline of resettlers’ livelihood capital. The prominent problem is that the reduction of land resources and population relocation leads to the changes of resettlers’ livelihood diversification and lifestyle change, which puts forward new requirements for the improvement of job skills and personal capability; the policy plays a significant role in rapidly improving the social, economic, and physical assets of resettlers in the early stage of reservoir resettlement; from the time scale of 15 years of policy implementation, the resettlement policy has an obvious slow-release effect on making up for the improvement of natural resources development and human capital; there are still blank spots in the current resettlement policy. Therefore, it is necessary to adjust and extend the policy for specific groups of people.

The Sustainable Development Assessment of Reservoir Resettlement Based on a BP Neural Network

Resettlement affects not only the resettlers’ production activities and life but also, directly or indirectly, the normal operation of power stations, the sustainable development of the resettlers, and regional social stability. Therefore, a scientific evaluation index system for the sustainable development of reservoir resettlement must be established that fits Chinese national conditions and not only promotes reservoir resettlement research but also improves resettlement practice. This essay builds an evaluation index system for resettlers’ sustainable development based on a back-propagation (BP) neural network, which can be adopted in China, taking the resettlement necessitated by step hydropower stations along the Wujiang River cascade as an example. The assessment results show that the resettlement caused by step power stations along the Wujiang River is sustainable, and this evaluation supports the conclusion that national policies and regulations, which are undergoing constant improvement, and resettlement has increasingly improved. The results provide a reference for hydropower reservoir resettlement in developing countries.

The Sustainable Livelihoods Research of Reservoir Resettlement in the Upper Reaches of the Yellow River Based on the Development of Human Capital

With the exploitation of the Yellow River reservoir, the number of reservoir resettlement is gradually increasing, and the sustainable livelihood of immigrants is becoming more and more important. The sustainable livelihoods resettlement is the goal of the new period, and it is the inevitable requirement to take duties and guarantee immigrants rights and realize the economic and social development, but only the human capital can manage the other capital, and it has knowledge and skills to use natural capital and physical capital and other livelihood capital. We will analyze the problems that the reservoir immigrates’ sustainable livelihoods with support of human capital on the upper of the Yellow River located in Qinghai section through the literature and statistical yearbook, and put forward the suggestions on the development of human capital: to ensure the basic education, innovate the education mode, improve the skill quality and increase government investment. I hope that these suggestions can help the Yellow River reservoir resettlement to achieve the goal of sustainable livelihoods, and promoting the leapfrog development of social economy and achieving the goal of the long period of stability of society.

The New Patterns of Reservoir Immigrants Entrepreneurship which Located in the Section of Qinghai Province of the Yellow River

Discussing the improved method about existing immigrant of reservoir resettlement policy support through on-the-spot investigation and combining questionnaire data has a certain practical significance, The root cause of the reservoir immigrant can't rely on business out of poverty is that they have low level culture and lack of skills. The text based on the analysis of the local business environment of immigration area, putting forward to some suggestions to promote the development of business enterprise to grow rich, according to the characteristics of the immigration area.

Ethnic Migration, Embedded Settlement and the Development of Low-Carbon Willingness: A Field Survey on the Reservoir Emigrants of She Minority and the Inhabitants of Immigration Areas in Longyou County, Zhejiang Province

The development of low-carbon willingness is one of the inherent conditions for the construction of low-carbon cities. This paper focuses on a case study of the embedded settlement of She immigrants from Muchen Reservoir (in Zhejiang Province) and inhabitants of immigration areas. Based on a survey sampling of the above-mentioned She emigrants and inhabitants, the author conducts an experimental study, which divides research subjects into four groups: A1 of Han ethnic group settling in single-Han communities in immigration areas; A2 of Han ethnic group settling with She immigrants in immigration areas; B1 of She immigrants settling in single-She communities after migration; B2 of She immigrants settling with Han ethnic group after migration. A1 and B1 are reference groups, while A2 and B2 are experimental groups. The study analyzes and compares the low-carbon awareness of Han ethnic group and She minority in different modes of living (single-ethnic settlement and embedded settlement) in the immigrant area after the reservoir resettlement, so as to identify whether embedded settlement helps foster low-carbon awareness. The results show that Han ethnic group settling with She immigrants consumed less luxuries and is better at applying traditional local knowledge compared with its reference group; meanwhile, She minority settling with Han ethnic group has more low-carbon knowledge and stronger low-carbon willingness. The study proves that when an ethnic minority migrates from a single-ethnicity community to one featuring embedded settlement of different ethnic groups, the communication among them helps to spread and strengthen low-carbon awareness; besides, traditional local knowledge of ethnic minorities contributes to the low-carbon development of the immigration areas.

Damming China’s rivers to expand its cities: the urban livelihoods of rural people displaced by the Three Gorges Dam

ABSTRACTOver the next two decades, China, the country with the world’s largest urban population, is orchestrating the urbanization of some 300 million rural people. In its National New-Type Urbanization Plan (2014) the State Council has outlined a range of strategies to grow its cities not least of which is rural-to-urban migration. This plan will have significant effects on other types of displacement, particularly, the forced displacement and resettlement of those living in the path of large dams. This paper reviews what is known about New-Type Urbanization Approach to Reservoir Resettlement. Then, based on a longitudinal study of 145 resettled households at the Three Gorges Dam, the livelihood effects of rural-to-urban resettlement are unpacked to provide lessons for its use in advancing urbanization. It finds that rural-to-urban resettlers have lower incomes than their urban-to-urban and rural-to-rural counterparts, and higher rates of food and income insecurity.

Research on GIS Based Reservoir Resettlement Data Management System — An Example of Guangdong Reservoir Resettlement Project

Research on GIS Based Reservoir Resettlement Data Management System — An Example of Guangdong Reservoir Resettlement Project

Factors influencing immigrants’ satisfaction in Danjiangkou Reservoir based on logistic regression model

Findings from a prospective study of project-induced migration along the middle route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project in China are reported. The study seeks to identify the key factors influencing differences in immigrants’ satisfaction, from their own characteristics, family income, production conditions, living conditions, social conditions, resource conditions, and environment, using Danjiangkou Reservoir as the case study area. A questionnaire survey data with a large sample (1,031 immigrant households in the Danjiangkou Reservoir) was used for the logistic model. Analysis indicated that variables such as immigrants’ family income, as in ‘per capita net income’; immigrants’ production conditions, such as ‘quality of cultivated land’; immigrants’ living conditions, such as ‘infrastructure’; and immigrants’ social conditions, such as ‘the implementation of immigration policy’ in the case reservoir model are the most important factors that affect the immigrants’ satisfaction. The degree of importance of ‘per capita net income’, ‘quality of cultivated land’, ‘infrastructure’, and ‘the implementation of immigration policy’ was 14.8%, 16.0%, 9.2%, and 8.1%, respectively. Considering the practical implications of this research, identifying factors affecting immigrants’ satisfaction with the reservoir resettlement relocation experience could be useful for policymakers designing immigration programs.

Long Term Compensation Analysis About Reservoir Resettlement Based on Grey Prediction

Long Term Compensation Analysis About Reservoir Resettlement Based on Grey Prediction

Reservoir resettlement compensation standard based on living standards

Reservoir resettlement compensation standard based on living standards

Research on Problems and Countermeasures for Urbanization of Reservoir Resettlement in Guizhou Province

The reservoir filling arising out of the water conservancy and hydropower engineering development inundated a lot of fertile farmlands and good soils. Especially it was mountainous with scarce land in the southwest area, and the contradiction between man and land was prominent. The soil-based resettlement mode only possessed the textual meaning, rather than the practical operational meaning. It is necessary to adopt the urbanization and industrialization resettlement, so as to enable the resettlement to move out as well as dwell securely and become rich step by step. Through the field research, this paper summarizes the type during the urbanization process of reservoir resettlement in Guizhou Province at the present stage, discovers the existing difficulties and problems in the resettlement, and puts forward the relevant countermeasures and suggestions.

Study on Evaluation Method for Sustainable Development of Reservoir Resettlement Based on Analytic Hierarchy Process

The sustainable development evaluation of reservoir resettlement has great significance to future planning and implementation of water conservancy and hydropower projects. Based on the analysis of the current condition of reservoir resettlement, this paper established a comprehensive evaluation index system for sustainable development of reservoir resettlement, with the consideration of economic, social, cultural and environmental factors. The Analytic Hierarchy Process method is proposed to determine the weight of each index. The case of the Three Gorges reservoir resettlement in Tianchang, Anhui is analyzed, and the feasibility of the proposed method is verified.