Water Management In China Research Articles

Inspiring citizen science innovation for sustainable development goal 6 in water quality monitoring in China

Introduction: The global challenge of sustainable development is encapsulated in the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), to which China is committed. As outlined in the UNESCO World Water Assessment Program (WWAP) report, water fundamentally impacts on sustainable development, making the achievement of SDG 6 (water and sanitation) crucial. China, as a leading manufacturing hub with extensive agriculture, grapples with challenges in monitoring SDG 6 indicators, especially concerning water quality.Methods: In light of these challenges, this study explores the utilisation of non-traditional data sources, specifically citizen science (CS), to address aspects of SDG 6 monitoring pertaining to water quality monitoring in China. Specifically, our study employs a combination of research techniques–including a literature review, semi-structured interviews, and participant observation–to critically evaluate 13 existing CS projects focused on water quality monitoring. A modified CS assessment framework has been utilised, offering a comprehensive, structured approach to evaluation.Results: In total, this analysis identified four key findings: 1) CS projects related to water monitoring in China predominantly focus on freshwater and drinking water; 2) Greater attention and support are needed for freshwater monitoring initiatives to align with China’s “ecological civilisation” policy; 3) Replacing “citizen science” with “public participation” may promote broader acceptance of these initiatives; 4) Training requires enhancement, particularly for participants from third- and fourth-tier cities as well as remote rural areas.Discussion: This research delineates feasible strategies for the future expansion and integration of CS projects throughout the country. It advocates for a more participatory data-driven approach to sustainable water management in China, given the highlighted challenges and the potential solutions unearthed through the use of citizen science and public participation.

Identification and Diagnosis of Transboundary River Basin Water Management in China and Neighboring Countries

Numerous studies have demonstrated that a complex distribution of water resources, regional development, and management mechanisms create significant management challenges for transboundary river basins. We utilized diagnostic thinking to examine the water management issues of the 14 main transboundary watersheds in three regions (Northeast, Northwest, and Southwest) of China. Our four diagnosis points were water quantity, water quality, ecological stability and human health, and cooperation among watershed stakeholders. We found that the watersheds faced varying water management issues. The Indus and Ganges basins have the worst problems, whereas the Tarim basin’s ecological environment is the most vulnerable and the Ob basin is the fittest. Therefore, depending on each basin’s results, we provide practical water management ideas for each. Furthermore, we summarized and classified the geographical settings of each basin and determined the water management issues in each major region in China. Our results provide direction for both new research on and cooperation with transboundary basin water management.

Sustainable Urban Water Management in China: A Case Study from Guangzhou and Kunming

In China, the notion of a water sensitive city has gained popularity in urban water management as a result of the detrimental effects of flooding and pollution caused by developmental activities. Urban systems and their interrelationships are critical for long-term urban water management and water sensitivity. This article is a case study considering how a strength, weakness, opportunities, and threat (SWOT) analysis-based approach to urban water management interventions in Guangzhou and Kunming cities (China) enables decision makers to identify solutions for cities to become more water-sensitive and resilient. The similar difficulties and rewards with respect to the contexts of both cities were synthesized using SWOT analysis. The contextual SWOT analysis, in conjunction with the comprehensive inclusion of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in intervention planning in these cities, revealed that a water-sensitive-cities approach requires the establishment of a comprehensively multi-objective rainwater management system; this approach would have the goals of reducing rainwater draining sources, controlling processes and adaptive measures, and governing the system to make it more resilient. The water strategy should be holistic and adaptive, capable of providing a broad range of ecological services and other social benefits consistent with the fulfilment of the Sustainable Development Goals, and adaptable to other Chinese cities seeking to achieve water sensitivity.

Inside‐out: Chinese academic assessments of large‐scale water infrastructure

AbstractLittle is known in the international academic community about Chinese‐language research on water management. To remedy this deficit, this paper reviews current mainland Chinese understandings of the role of large‐scale water infrastructures as tools of water resources management. We reviewed 461 papers published in mainland Chinese journals by Chinese scholars. This review suggests that the dominant approach to water management reflects the confines of government priorities—large‐scale, concrete‐heavy, infrastructure‐based means of moving water around the country so as to meet demands and stimulate economic growth. Suppression of critical voices means that infrastructure is generally rendered apolitical: the critiques are about practical issues, such as technological, managerial, or administrative problems. There are exceptions to this characterization that adopt more critical frames; however, they reflect on water management elsewhere or in the past rather than on contemporary China. While these more critical papers are interesting and important contributions to our understanding of the politics of hydraulic infrastructures, the literature as a whole says little about the politics of infrastructure in China now. In effect, much of the literature in Chinese on water management in China simply acts as an arm of a machine—a network of corporations, universities, international institutions, and arms of the government, together tasked with identifying and framing what are water management issues, formulating standardized procedures for tackling those issues, and then constructing solutions to them.This article is categorized under: Engineering Water > Planning Water Human Water > Water Governance

Evaluation of agricultural water-saving effects in the context of water rights trading: An empirical study from China's water rights pilots

Cultivating water markets is an urgent task related to the sustainable use of water resources. With the intention of promoting water conservation, China has been actively exploring and fostering a water rights market since the turn of the century. This paper discusses whether water rights trading (WRT) promotes water conservation in agriculture using the panel data of 30 provinces in China from 1999 to 2018, settling 2014 as the beginning of water rights trading policy. National water rights pilots and provincial water rights pilots are selected as the subjects of this study, and the DID method is used for basic analysis and mechanistic analysis. This paper includes three major findings: (1) agricultural water use (AWU) in the water rights pilots were significantly lower by 992.7 million m3 compared to non-pilot areas, a proportional decrease of about 8.04%. (2) water rights market has a stronger effect on saving water in areas with high and low AWU than medium AWU; national pilots have stronger impact compared to provincial pilots; also, the policy has the stronger impact in the regions with higher precipitation. (3) the two main channels of water-saving effects from the policy are the promotion of agricultural technology innovation and the water rights transfer to high water consuming industries. This paper shows that water rights trading can reduce agricultural water use, providing valuable insights for current and future water management in China.

Full Implementation of the River Chief System in China: Outcome and Weakness

Despite having explored various modes of water management over the past three decades, the water crisis persists and the Chinese government has been required to revolutionize river management from the top down. The River Chief System (RCS), which evolved from small scale, local efforts to manage rivers starting in 2007, is an innovative system that coordinates between existing ‘fragmented’ river/lake management and pollution control systems, to clearly define the responsibilities of all concerned departments. The system was promoted from an emergent policy to nationwide action in 2016, and ever since, has undergone steady development. We have analyzed recent developments in the system from the perspectives of functional expansion, implementation strategies, legislative processes, and public outreach after the full implementation of the RCS. By collecting data over the past several years, the changes in the water quality of representative watersheds in China were evaluated to assess the outcomes of RCS implementation. Finally, a summary of the weaknesses and outstanding problems of the system is presented, putting forward a multi-channel strategy for the long-term stability and effectiveness of river/lake chiefs, and promoting the RCS as a suitable solution to the collaborative and jurisdictional issues in water management in China.

GIS-Based Social Cost–Benefit Analysis on Integrated Urban Water Management in China: A Case Study of Sponge City in Harbin

Climate change along with industrialization or urbanization, which uses materials with low water permeability and is accompanied by change in urban land use, are major reasons for frequent urban floods in many Chinese cities. Moreover, upgrading the drainage system can have numerous negative environmental impacts on the city, especially in districts with dense population and buildings. A new integrated urban water management (IUWM) strategy implemented in China, “sponge city,” has gained significant attention in recent years. In this study, a novel framework is built to analyze the effectiveness of sponge city by 3D simulating urban inundation results and performing a cost–benefit analysis. Construction and maintenance fees are included in the costs list, and carbon reduction, air quality improvement, rainwater harvesting, and reduction of flood risk are included under benefits. The district of Nangang in Harbin city in Northeast China was chosen as a case study area. Finally, we conclude that the maximum precipitation of 49.82 mm/h by sponge city can bring the inundation depth below a target depth in the target area. Further, though the sponge city project is not effective from a private perspective, it is effective from a social perspective.

Urbanization impacts on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of the water infrastructure in China: Trade-offs among sustainable development goals (SDGs)

The lasting urbanization in China has moved to the ‘new-normal’ stage, in which rural-to-urban migration, inefficiency in land use, and insufficient public services are the key challenges. To prevent urban sprawl, the compact city design intensively focuses on the improvement of housing and transport services to increase urban accessibility, vitality and diversity. Clean water and sanitation is also an essential function of cities, but the impacts from China's future urbanization on unheeded water infrastructure were sparsely estimated, especially from a perspective of urban metabolism. This study examines the complex response in the water sector to Chinese urban policies taking resource efficiency into account GHG emissions. A hypothetical grid-city model was developed to connect technical parameters in urban water infrastructure systems to the socio-economic changes, such as population growth, housing blocks, and water end-use. The results show that the pipeline construction dominates material use and locks in significant GHG emissions in the water sector. The most efficient urbanization scenario can reduce 60% of GHG emissions from the water infrastructure, compared to the case of urban sprawl with residency restriction in large cities. A trade-off in scenarios was observed between the optimization for mega-cities and the optimization for the whole of China regarding the additional energy consumption for pumping in the water sector. As empirical evidence of China, this study shows the conflict between SDG 6 (Clean water and sanitation) and SDG 13 (Climate action) in the urban water sector can be largely alleviated by an efficiency-focused urban policy complying with SDG 11 (Sustainable cities and communities). A loosen migration regulation and compact urban planning in the medium- and large-sized cities are recommended, along with advanced water technologies to promote sustainable urban water management in China.

Environmental improvement of lead refining: a case study of water footprint assessment in Jiangxi Province, China

China is currently facing water scarcity due to its large national population and rapid economic development. Lead is a typical non-ferrous metal. The lead industry is one of the top 10 water-consuming industries in China and suffers from the heavy burden of properly managing discharged wastewater containing heavy metals and organic pollutants. Accordingly, a water footprint analysis of lead refining was conducted in this study to enhance the water management in China’s lead industry. This study is part 2 of the environmental improvement for lead-refining series. In accordance with the ISO 14046 standard, life cycle assessment-based water footprint analysis was applied to a lead-refining enterprise in Jiangxi Province, China. Five midpoint (i.e., water scarcity, aquatic eutrophication, carcinogens, non-carcinogens, and freshwater ecotoxicity) and two endpoint (i.e., human health and ecosystem quality) indicators are utilized to assess the water footprint impact results. Direct pollutant emissions are a major contributor to ecosystem quality and freshwater ecotoxicity, whereas indirect processes (i.e., industrial hazardous waste landfill, transport, and chemicals) contribute considerably to human health, aquatic eutrophication, and carcinogen categories. Chromium, copper, arsenic, and zinc were the key substances in the lead production chain, and their emissions exerted a significant impact on human health and ecosystem quality. Reducing direct copper emission was the most important key to minimizing ecosystem quality decline in China’s lead industry, and optimizing indirect processes was effective in mitigating the impact on human health. Enhancing wastewater treatment, increasing chemical consumption efficiency, optimizing transport and industrial hazardous waste disposal, improving supervision, issuing relevant governmental regulations, and adopting advanced wastewater treatment technologies are urgently needed to control the water footprint.

The present condition and perspective of urban water management in China

On the basis of the relationship between human development and water, this paper discusses the importance of water in the development of Chinese culture. And then, in view of urban water management agency and their responsibilities, Water intake, water consumption, drainage and water conservation, the present conditions and the existing problems of urban water management are discussed in China in this paper. And from the aspects of administrative law enforcement, law, economics, technology and education, the perspectives of urban water management are taken into account, for achieving accurate and efficient urban water management in the future.

Assessment of spatiotemporal variability of reference evapotranspiration and controlling climate factors over decades in China using geospatial techniques

Reference evapotranspiration (ETo) is a key component of the hydrological cycle, and it plays a vital role in agricultural, forest, and environmental management. This study assesses the capability of hot spot geospatial analysis to determine statistically significant spatial clusters of high and low ETo in China over the period of 1970–2014, based on the daily data from 598 weather stations. The global controlling factors affecting ETo across continental China are investigated using global ordinary least square regression (OLS) model. The spatial relationship between ETo and climatic variables is explored using local geographic weighted regression (GWR) model. It was found that for China as a whole, ETo decreased significantly from 1970 to 1993 at a rate of 14.91 mm decade−1, while the trend began increasing by 16.50 mm decade−1 from 1993 to 2014. The hot spot analysis showed that the regional distribution of statistically significant spatial ETo clusters remained relatively steady between years from 1970 to 2014. Hot regions were identified with high values of annual total ETo in North China (NC), South China (SC) and the Turpan Depression of Northwest China (NWC). The cold regions were highly clustered in most parts of Northeast China (NEC) and the borders between NWC, Central China (CC) and Southwest China (SWC). It was also found that statistically significant clusters of hot and cold spots exhibited a migration trend between months. The results of the OLS analysis suggested that over China, the maximum temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed were the controlling meteorological variables affecting ETo. Based on the results of GWR, maximum and minimum temperature were the most influencing climatic variables affecting ET0 over China. GWR was found to be a more powerful method than OLS for modelling ETo in China. Results of this study can be used to help end-users, planners and policy makers to anticipate their decision making, which in turn will improve regional water management in China.

Optimizing Policy for Balanced Industrial Profit and Water Pollution Control under a Complex Socioecological System Using a Multiagent-Based Model

Water pollution is a prominent and urgent environmental problem that represents a significant challenge in solving the water resource crisis. The ability to choose an optimal environmental policy can provide support for decision makers to effectively control water pollution. This study presents an agent-based model (ABM) approach involving two classes of agents, agricultural household agents and factory agents, to simulate pollutant discharge, and discusses the effectiveness of the whole system and subsystems under multiple policy scenarios involving a combination of environmental tax (ET) and payments for environmental services (PES). This idea is applied to the Shanmei Reservoir watershed, one of the important reservoirs watersheds in China. The results showed that: (1) the ABM represented well pollutant discharge scenarios where Nash coefficient (NSE) values were greater than 0.76; (2) though ET and PES policies were both effective in reducing water pollution, PES was more effective at reducing pollution from households, while ET was more effective at controlling industrial pollution emissions; (3) considering the environmental costs and general effect of the system, a medium degree of PES for agricultural household agents and a medium degree of ET for factory agents were found to be optimal for controlling water pollution in this watershed. A differential compensation mechanism and the introduction of market incentives were recommended to reduce the financial burden of the government. The results also demonstrated that ABM was helpful for choosing an effective policy to control pollution emissions and realizing environmental objectives and socio-economic co-benefits. The model structure and parameters should be optimized in specific cases because of the uncertainty of partial parameters and the neglect of the consumption process. These findings could be helpful for providing guidelines for water pollution control and sustainable water management in China.

Human activities altered water N:P ratios in the populated regions of China

Being able to quantify nutrient stoichiometry in the waterbodies is especially important given its strong effects on a variety of ecological processes. China has made huge progress in the improvement of surface water quality, but the accompanying changes to water nutrient stoichiometry and implications are not well understood yet. Our results have shown that the water nutrient cycles have been decoupled in China's populated regions, and population density and GDP values in the same catchment are useful in explaining the variances of lake N:P stoichiometry in East China Lake Region. In other regions, water N and P tend to respond to the selected parameters in a similar way, leading to the poor prediction of N:P stoichiometry. With the progress of water management in China, a similar change of water nutrients and their stoichiometry as the developed countries is occurring, i.e., faster decrease of TP concentrations than TN, and continuing increase of N:P ratios. It is necessary for the managers to be aware of the quick and large-scale changes of nutrient stoichiometry in the water, since the ecological risk caused by the changes to the aquatic systems is still not well known.

A Review of Applying Spatial Modelling and GIS in Residential Water Use

Growing studies indicate that social geography characteristics and spatial interactions contribute to water sustainability management in residential water use. Recently, researches are being developed spatial decision support system by integrating spatial modelling with GIS, which clearly display the determined factors information of water consumption by the changing weights methods. Policy makers will use the tool to manipulate and evaluate the effective of water management strategies, and it is beneficial to analyse a range of alternative water conservation policies. Such studies and model applying are of great significance for reference in sustainable water management in China. Thus, this paper reviews the previous researches of spatial modelling and application in residential water use.

Aligning ancient and modern approaches to sustainable urban water management in China: Ningbo as a “Blue‐Green City” in the “Sponge City” campaign

Modern urban flood and water management emphasises holistic strategies that reduce flood risk while providing cobenefits to urban economies, societies, and environments. The “Blue‐Green City” concept provides a viable framework for putting this into practice. Ningbo, is a coastal city with high flood risk, whose history as a Chinese “water town” demonstrates that approaches to water management implicit to the “Blue‐Green” concept were practiced in ancient times, and lessons can be learned from these applications. Furthermore, recent launch of the “Sponge City” campaign by China's National Government demonstrates the political will to implement sustainable flood and water management in ways consistent with the “Blue‐Green” ideals. Selection of Ningbo for a pilot project presents the opportunity to integrate new “Sponge city” approaches with ancient “Blue‐Green” principles, within the contexts of both new urban development and retrofit. Reinventing traditional approaches to urban water management and governance offers the possibility of maintaining flood risk at acceptable levels without constraining urban growth in China and other countries experiencing rapid urban development.

A new strategy for integrated urban water management in China: Sponge city

Urban water-related problems associated with rapid urbanization, including waterlogging, water pollution, the ecological degradation of water, and water shortages, have caused global concerns in recent years. In 2013, in order to mitigate increasingly severe urban water-related problems, China set forth a new strategy for integrated urban water management (IUWM) called the “Sponge City”. This is the first holistic IUWM strategy implemented in a developing country that is still undergoing rapid urbanization, and holds promise for application in other developing countries. This paper aims to comprehensively summarize the sponge city. First, this paper reviews prior studies and policies on urban water management in China as important background for the sponge city proposal. Then, the connotations, goals, and features of the sponge city are summarized and discussed. Finally, the challenges, research needs, and development directions pertinent to the sponge city are discussed based on investigations and studies conducted by the authors. The sponge city in China has a short history—given this, there are many issues that should be examined with regard to the stepwise implementation of the Sponge City Programme (SCP). Accordingly, the authors perceive this study as only the beginning of abundant studies on the sponge city.

Transdisciplinary research in support of land and water management in China and Southeast Asia: evaluation of four research projects.

Transdisciplinary research (TDR) aims at identifying implementable solutions to difficult sustainability problems and at fostering social learning. It requires a well-managed collaboration among multidisciplinary scientists and multisectoral stakeholders. Performing TDR is challenging, particularly for foreign researchers working in countries with different institutional and socio-cultural conditions. There is a need to synthesize and share experience among researchers as well as practitioners regarding how TDR can be conducted under specific contexts. In this paper, we aim to evaluate and synthesize our unique experience in conducting TDR projects in Asia. We applied guiding principles of TDR to conduct a formative evaluation of four consortium projects on sustainable land and water management in China, the Philippines, and Vietnam. In all projects, local political conditions restricted the set of stakeholders that could be involved in the research processes. The set of involved stakeholders was also affected by the fact that stakeholders in most cases only participate if they belong to the personal network of the project leaders. Language barriers hampered effective communication between foreign researchers and stakeholders in all projects and thus knowledge integration. The TDR approach and its specific methods were adapted to respond to the specific cultural, social, and political conditions in the research areas, also with the aim to promote trust and interest of the stakeholders throughout the project. Additionally, various measures were implemented to promote collaboration among disciplinary scientists. Based on lessons learned, we provide specific recommendations for the design and implementation of TDR projects in particular in Asia.

The Potential Impacts of Climate Change Factors on Freshwater Eutrophication: Implications for Research and Countermeasures of Water Management in China

Water eutrophication has become one of the most serious aquatic environmental problems around the world. More and more research has indicated climate change as a major natural factor that will lead to the acceleration of eutrophication in rivers and lakes. However, understanding the mechanism of climate change’s effect on water eutrophication is difficult due to the uncertainties caused by its complex, non-linear process. There is considerable uncertainty about the magnitude of future temperature changes, and how these will drive eutrophication in water bodies at regional scales under the effect of human activities. This review collects the existing international and domestic literature from the last 10 years, discussing the most sensitive factors of climate change (i.e., temperature, precipitation, wind, and solar radiation) and analyzing their interaction with water eutrophication. Case studies of serious eutrophication and algal bloom problems in China are discussed to further demonstrate the conclusion. Finally, adaptation countermeasures and related implications are proposed in order to foster the development of sustainability strategies for water management in China.

China’s river basin management needs more efforts

River basin management is an important strategy for ensuring the sustainable development and utilization of water resources. With the rapid growth in GDP and the accelerated industrialization and urbanization in China, water catchment management becomes one of the most formidable challenges that this nation faces. Since the news spread in December 2014 that the middle route of the ambitious South-to-North Water Diversion Project in China had started supplying water to Beijing, the status of management of its river basins has become again a hot public debate. This paper describes the current situation and various issues regarding China's river water resources. It looks especially at the management difficulties and shortcomings of authority organizations and offers some appropriate recommendations to improve water management in China.

Spatiotemporal pattern of the global sensitivity of the reference evapotranspiration to climatic variables in recent five decades over China

The impact of climatic variables on reference evapotranspiration (ET0) has been a critical issue for ages. The sensitivities of the FAO56 Penman–Monteith ET0 equation to climate variables in 668 stations of China from 1960 to 2009 were studied using a global sensitivity analysis method, the extended Fourier amplitude sensitivity test. The results showed a large degree of spatiotemporal variation in the sensitivity of ET0 to incoming solar radiation, temperature (T), relative humidity (RH), and wind speed, with the averaged first-order sensitivity index (Si) value of 0.41, 0.18, 0.25, and 0.15, respectively. At annul scale, solar radiation was the most sensitive parameter in southern part of China with the mean Si value reached 0.66, while T and RH were the most sensitive parameter in northeast and north China, both with mean Si of 0.37. In northwest China, the mean Si values of incoming solar radiation, T, and wind speed, were relatively constant around 0.25, while the value of RH trended to be slightly higher than other parameters (=0.28). In Tibetan Plateau, solar radiation and T were the two most sensitive parameters, with averaged Si values of 0.32 and 0.31, respectively. The spatial variation of sensitivity varied seasonally, and was closely related to the geographic location of the stations. In general, stations in the low latitude were more sensitive to solar radiation and less sensitive to T than stations in the high latitude. The merit of the sensitivity results obtained in the current study was that it estimates which climatic parameter variation has the greatest impact on ET0 variation across the entire range of the climatic parameters rather than merely based on their median values, and it is helpful to better understand the potential effects of climate changes on the water management in China.