Water Resources Management In China Research Articles

Set pair analysis and system dynamics coupling approach for structure simulation and variation trend evaluation of water resources spatial equilibrium system

AbstractThe implement of water resources spatial equilibrium (WRSE) schemes is fundamental task of integrated water resources management in China, in which, the evaluation and simulation analysis of WRSE system is of great concern for understanding the overall variation and feedback characteristics of WRSE system. Therefore, we utilized the ordered degree, entropy and connection number coupling model to evaluate the variation of WRSE system, and also employed system dynamics (SD) and scenario simulation integrated method to reveal the feedback characteristics between different equilibrium variables and subsystems, and thus the set pair analysis‐SD based approach for structure simulation and variation trend evaluation of WRSE system was constructed. The application results in Anhui province, China demonstrated that, the overall variation of provincial spatial equilibrium situation of WRSE system presented obvious improving trend, 2009–2019, the index of ordered degree and connection number entropy in Hefei, increased from the minimum of 0.6434 (Grade 3, unequilibrium) to maximum of 0.9985 (Grade 1, equilibrium). Moreover, the future variation of WRSE system will display stable improving trend during 2020 to 2029, in which, annual water resources availability and water resources utilization efficiency will have significant influence on WRSE system. And the research findings can be favorable to formulate water resources development and utilization strategies.

A novel framework for integrative assessment of water balance health in China

Existing studies on water resource issues focus on water scarcity while largely lacking an integrative water balance health assessment and ignoring the combined impacts of water quality, water transfer, and unconventional water resources on water balance. Here, we proposed a novel framework for assessing regional water balance health considering three dimensions of water problems about imbalances: water scarcity, water inequality, and systems incoordination. This paper first quantified the levels of water balance health at multiple geographic and temporal scales in China, and then investigated the critical components and the impacts of improved surface water quality, inter-basin water transfer, and unconventional water use on the local water balance health. Results showed that China was under an unhealthy water balance due to multiple imbalances based on the annual average assessments during 2014–2018. More than 45% of the national population (∼615 million people) was affected by an unhealthy water balance. Hotspots with unhealthy water balance exhibited spatial heterogeneity and temporal variability, with Northern China experiencing unhealthy water balance throughout the year, while Southern China usually faced this issue during the winter. Unhealthy water balance in Northern China was primarily driven by water scarcity, while in the west of the Hu-Huanyong Line, water inequality exacerbated the situation. Southeastern China faced systems incoordination, particularly vulnerable during extreme events, such as severe droughts. More than 400 and 150 million people benefited significantly from improved surface water quality and inter-basin water transfer, respectively, relieving unhealthy water balance. However, the effectiveness of unconventional water use was found to be limited. This study contributed to a better understanding of water balance health and facilitated the development of policies for integrated water resources management in China.

Dynamics of Bacterioplankton Communities during Wet and Dry Seasons in the Danjiangkou Reservoir in Hubei, China.

Water quality is directly linked to drinking water safety for millions of people receiving the water. The Danjiangkou Reservoir is the main water source for the Middle Route of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project (MR-SNWDP), located in the vicinity of Henan and Hubei provinces in China. Aquatic microorganisms are key indicators of biologically assessing and monitoring the water quality of the reservoir as they are sensitive to environmental and water quality changes. This study aimed to investigate the spatiotemporal variations in bacterioplankton communities during wet (April) and dry (October) seasons at eight monitoring points in Hanku reservoir and five monitoring points in Danku reservoir. Each time point had three replicates, labeled as wet season Hanku (WH), wet season Danku (WD), dry season Hanku (DH), and dry season Danku (DD) of Danjiangkou Reservoir in 2021. High-throughput sequencing (Illumina PE250) of the 16S rRNA gene was performed, and alpha (ACE and Shannon) and beta (PCoA and NDMS) diversity indices were analyzed. The results showed that the dry season (DH and DD) had more diverse bacterioplankton communities compared to the wet season (WH and WD). Proteobacteria, Actinobacteria, and Firmicutes were the most abundant phyla, and Acinetobacter, Exiguobacterium, and Planomicrobium were abundant in the wet season, while polynucleobacter was abundant in the dry season. The functional prediction of metabolic pathways revealed six major functions including carbohydrate metabolism, membrane transport, amino acid metabolism, signal transduction, and energy metabolism. Redundancy analysis showed that environmental parameters greatly affected bacterioplankton diversity during the dry season compared to the wet season. The findings suggest that seasonality has a significant impact on bacterioplankton communities, and the dry season has more diverse communities influenced by environmental parameters. Further, the relatively high abundance of certain bacteria such as Acinetobacter deteriorated the water quality during the wet season compared to the dry season. Our findings have significant implications for water resource management in China, and other countries facing similar challenges. However, further investigations are required to elucidate the role of environmental parameters in influencing bacterioplankton diversity in order to devise potential strategies for improving water quality management in the reservoir.

Making China’s water data accessible, usable and shareable

Water data are essential for monitoring, managing, modelling and projecting water resources. Yet despite such data—including water quantity, quality, demand and ecology—being extensively collected in China, it remains difficult to access, use and share them. These challenges have led to poor data quality, duplication of effort and wasting of resources, limiting their utility for supporting decision-making in water resources policy and management. In this Perspective we discuss the current state of China’s water data collection, governance and sharing, the barriers to open-access water data and its impacts, and outline a path to establishing a national water data infrastructure to reform water resource management in China and support global water-data sharing initiatives. This Perspective characterizes the major challenges to open-access water data in China. A potential data management infrastructure to improve the collection, sharing, and use of water data is outlined.

An overview of soil moisture drought research in China: Progress and perspective

Soil moisture drought (SMD) directly affects agricultural yield and land water resources. Understanding and predicting the occurrences and evolution of SMD are of great importance for a largely agricultural country such as China. Compared to other drought categories, SMD receives less attention due to the lack of long-term soil moisture datasets. In recent decades, SMD research has been greatly developed in China, benefiting from increased ground and satellite measurements along with state-of-the-art land surface models. Here, the authors provide a brief overview of the recent progress in SMD research in China, focus on historical drought identification and its prediction, and then raise some future perspectives. Based on historical SMD studies, drought frequency has increased overall and drought duration has been prolonged since the 1950s for China as a whole, but they both show substantial temporal variations at the regional scale. Research on SMD prediction has mainly relied on the statistical relationship between soil moisture and climate variables. Few studies based on the dynamical approach in seasonal drought prediction have highlighted the importance of initial conditions and atmospheric forcing datasets. Given the importance of SMD in agricultural practice and water resource management in China, it is necessary to emphasize the following: 1) conducting research on multiple time scales (e.g., from days to the centurial time scale) and cross-regional drought identification research; and 2) developing a SMD prediction system that takes advantage of climate prediction systems, land surface models, and multisource soil moisture datasets.摘要论文回顾了中国土壤湿度干旱 (SMD) 历史重建和季节预测研究进展, 并对未来研究进行了展望. 自1950s年代以来, 全国整体干旱频率增加, 持续时间延长, 且有明显区域特征. SMD预测多是利用土壤湿度与气候变量之间的统计关系, 而少量基于动力学方法的干旱预测研究强调了初始条件和大气强迫数据对季节尺度干旱预测的重要性. 本论文提出: 1) 加强多时间尺度, 跨区域的SMD研究; 2)联合气候预测系统, 陆面模式和多源土壤湿度数据研制SMD预测系统.

Divergent Hydrological Responses to Forest Expansion in Dry and Wet Basins of China: Implications for Future Afforestation Planning

AbstractAfforestation to control soil erosion has been implemented throughout China over the past few decades. The long‐term hydrological effects, such as total water yield and baseflow, of this large‐scale anthropogenic activity remain unclear. Using six decades of hydrologic observations and remote sensing data, we explore the hydrological responses to forest expansion in four basins with contrasting climates across China. No significant change in runoff was found for the period 1970–2012 for the cold and dry Hailar River Basin in northeastern China. However, both forest expansion and reduced precipitation contributed to the runoff reduction after afforestation since the late 1990s. Similarly, afforestation and drying climate since the mid‐1990s induced a significant decrease in runoff for the Weihe River Basin in semi‐arid northwestern China. In contrast, the two wet basins in the humid southern China, Ganjiang River Basin and Dongjiang River Basin, showed insignificant changes in total runoff during their study periods. However, the baseflow in the winter dry seasons in these two watersheds significantly increased since the 1950s. Our results highlight the long‐term variable effects of forest expansion and local climatic variability on basin hydrology in different climatic regions. This study suggests that landuse change in the humid study watersheds did not cause dramatic change in river flow and that region‐specific afforestation policy should be considered to deal with forestation‐water quantity trade‐off. Conclusions from this study can help improve decision‐making for ecological restoration policies and water resource management in China and other countries where intensive afforestation efforts are taking place.

Comprehensive Evaluation of Global Precipitation Measurement Mission (GPM) IMERG Precipitation Products over Mainland China

Due to the difficulty involved in obtaining and processing a large amount of data, the spatial distribution of the quality and error structure of satellite precipitation products and the climatic dependence of the error sources have not been studied sufficiently. Eight statistical and detection indicators were used to compare and evaluate the accuracy of the Integrated Multi-Satellite Retrievals for Global Precipitation Measurement Mission (GPM IMERG) precipitation products in China, including IMERG Early, Late, and Final Run. (1) Based on the correlation coefficient between GPM IMERG precipitation products and measured precipitation, the precipitation detection ability is good in eastern China, whereas the root-mean-square error increases from northwest to southeast. (2) Compared with the Early and Late Run, the accuracy of the detection of a light rain of the IMERG Final Run is higher, but the precipitation is overestimated. With the increase in the precipitation intensity, the detection ability weakens, and the precipitation is underestimated. (3) The Final Run has a higher estimation accuracy regarding light rain in western high-altitude areas, whereas the accuracy of the detection of moderate rain, heavy rain, and rainstorms is higher in eastern coastal low-altitude areas. This phenomenon is related to the performance and detection principles of satellites. The altitude and magnitude of the precipitation affect the detection accuracy of the satellite. This study provides guidance for the application of GPM IMERG precipitation products in hydrological research and water resource management in China.

Long time series of daily evapotranspiration in China based on the SEBAL model and multisource images and validation

Abstract. Satellite observations of evapotranspiration (ET) have been widely used for water resources management in China. An accurate ET product with a high spatiotemporal resolution is required for research on drought stress and water resources management. However, such a product is currently lacking. Moreover, the performances of different ET estimation algorithms for China have not been clearly studied, especially under different environmental conditions. Therefore, the aims of this study were as follows: (1) to use multisource images to generate a long-time-series (2001–2018) daily ET product with a spatial resolution of 1 km × 1 km based on the Surface Energy Balance Algorithm for Land (SEBAL); (2) to comprehensively evaluate the performance of the SEBAL ET in China using flux observational data and hydrological observational data; and (3) to compare the performance of the SEBAL ET with the MOD16 ET product at the point scale and basin scale under different environmental conditions in China. At the point scale, both the models performed best in the conditions of forest cover, subtropical zones, hilly terrain, or summer, respectively, and SEBAL performed better in most conditions. In general, the accuracy of the SEBAL ET (rRMSE = 44.91 %) was slightly higher than that of the MOD16 ET (rRMSE = 48.72 %). In the basin-scale validation, both the models performed better than in the point-scale validation, with SEBAL obtaining results superior (rRMSE = 13.57 %) to MOD16 (rRMSE = 32.84 %). Additionally, both the models showed a negative bias, with the bias of the MOD16 ET being higher than that of the SEBAL ET. In the daily-scale validation, the SEBAL ET product showed a root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.92 mm d−1 and an r value of 0.79. In general, the SEBAL ET product can be used for the qualitative analysis and most quantitative analyses of regional ET. The SEBAL ET product is freely available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4243988 and https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4896147 (Cheng, 2020a, b). The results of this study can provide a reference for the application of remotely sensed ET products and the improvement of satellite ET observation algorithms.

Exploring solutions to alleviate the regional water stress from virtual water flows in China

China has long faced an uneven distribution of physical water resources, which has been further exacerbated by the virtual water transfers embodied in the interregional trade. To alleviate such unfavorable influences of interregional virtual water flows on regional water scarcity, this paper first combined a multi-regional input-output model and a structural decomposition analysis to identify the major driving forces behind the changes in interregional virtual water flows from 2002 to 2012, and then conducted a scenario analysis to explore solutions for sustainable water resource management in China. Results indicated that the virtual water outflows from water-deficient developing regions (Northwest and Northeast) to water-abundant developed regions, such as East Coast and South Coast, have been increasingly intensified from 2002 to 2012. During the period, the final demand predominated the increase of virtual water transfers, while the improvement of water use efficiency dominated the decline in virtual water flows from 2002 to 2012. Results from the designed scenarios indicated that the negative impacts of interregional virtual water flows on the water stress can be effectively relieved, indicating the high priority of regional water use efficiency improvement, especially in water-starved regions.

Socioeconomic determinants for the changing food-related scarce water uses in Chinese regions

Identifying the critical socioeconomic drivers of food-related scarce water uses at the provincial level is conducive to the formulation of region-specific policies. However, existing studies have not quantified the effects of regional socioeconomic factors on food-related scarce water uses in China. This study used the environmentally extended multi-regional input-output analysis and structural decomposition analysis to explore the socioeconomic determinants for the changing food-related scarce water uses in Chinese regions during 2007–2012. The results showed that the decrease of scarce water use intensity in the North Coast and Northwest (e.g., Hebei and Xinjiang) is the most effective way to reduce scarce water uses, contributing 11.5 and 11.4 billion tons of scarce water use reductions, respectively. It is also critical for Hebei, Shandong, Henan, and Xinjiang to focus on the improvement of local production structures. Moreover, reducing excessive food consumption and optimizing dietary patterns in developed coastal regions (e.g., Guangdong and Shanghai) can effectively reduce national water scarcity. For example, 4% reduction of the food consumption level in Guangdong would lead to 11% reduction of induced scarce water uses. Furthermore, it is essential to consider the interprovincial trade in food-water-related policy-making. The strengthening of interregional cooperation is also highlighted for sustainable food and water resource management in China.

Prediction of per capita water consumption for 31 regions in China.

Considering the shortage of per capita water resources in China, the paper established a fractional order accumulated grey prediction model (FGM(1,1)) to predict per capita water consumption of 31 regions (provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions) in China from 2019 to 2024. The results show that per capita water consumption varies greatly across the different regions. Among them, per capita water consumption of nine regions (i.e., Beijing, Tianjin, Inner Mongolia, Jiangsu, Henan, Hubei, Guizhou, Yunnan, and Shaanxi) shows an increasing trend, whereas per capita water consumption in other 22 regions shows a downward trend. The predictive results can provide a basis for water resource management in China.

Climate Services for Water Resource Management in China: The Case Study of Danjiangkou Reservoir

The efficiencies and effectiveness of water resource management are inextricably linked to climate services. This study demonstrates a climate information service for Danjiangkou Reservoir, which is the largest artificial lake in Asia, facing mounting challenges for flood control, water storage, and water diversion. Unlike traditional water resource management on the basis of short-term weather forecast and runoff monitoring, subseasonal to seasonal (S2S) and annual climate predictions as well as long-term climate change projections were well used to support the decision makers in Danjiangkou Reservoir. The National Climate Center (NCC) has projected the changes of future climate and extreme events by dynamically downscaling the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 5 (CMIP5) projections to 25-km resolution for the long-term planning of water resource management in Danjiangkou Reservoir. Real-time climate predictions based on climate models and downscaling interpretation and application methods at different timescales were also provided to meet the specific needs of earlier predictions and spatial refinement for the short-term diversion of the reservoir. Our results show that such climate services facilitated the Diversion Center of Danjiangkou Reservoir (DCDR) to reasonably control the operational water level, increased the ecological water supply to the northern portion of China by 844 million m3, and reduced as much as 1.67 billion m3 of abandoned water in 2019. In the future, it is necessary to develop climate prediction methods to increase spatial and temporal resolutions and prediction skills, and enhance interactions between providers and users.

Forecast of annual water consumption in 31 regions of China considering GDP and population

Abstract At present, water resources shortage has become one of the important factors restricting China's economic development, and water consumption prediction is the core task of water resources management. In this paper, a grey multivariate convolution model with adjacent accumulation (AGMC(1,N)) was proposed to predict the annual water consumption of 31 regions (provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions) in China under different growth rates of regional GDP and population. The results show that AGMC(1,N) model has a higher prediction accuracy. In addition, water consumption in more than 50% of the regions shows a downward trend due to the growth of regional GDP. Because of the influence of population, water consumption is also on the decline in more than 50% of areas. The predictive results can provide a basis for water resources management in China.

The Water Living Inheritance and Management Path of Ecological Resources with Folk Sports Characteristics

Hong, X. and Pan, T.L., 2020. The water living inheritance and management path of ecological resources with folk sports characteristics. In: Guido Aldana, P.A. and Kantamaneni, K. (eds.), Advances in Water Resources, Coastal Management, and Marine Science Technology. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 104, pp. 867–871. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.The construction of water living state is an important strategic choice for water resources management in China. The management mode of water living resource management in China has the phenomenon of water pollution, which leads to the distortion of ecological resources with folk sports characteristics in water state inheritance. The main significance of water living heritage is to show the integrity and purity of ecological resources with sports characteristics, not just to meet the needs of modern life. The problems facing the country are water shortage and water pollution, which are becoming more and more serious and appearing at a sustained growth rate. Under the influence of water pollution, some aquatic organisms have a large number of deaths, which also affect the use of groundwater. In the daily life and industrial water use, the phenomenon of waste is more common, resulting in water shortage. In view of this phenomenon, the state and relevant departments have taken corresponding management efforts to make the water living state of inheritance and management smoother, so as to ensure that people's lives more stable.

Advances in Eco-hydrology and Watershed Water Resources Management in China

Advances in Eco-hydrology and Watershed Water Resources Management in China

Future river basin health assessment through reliability-resilience-vulnerability: Thresholds of multiple dryness conditions

Increasing dryness conditions under global warming are posing severe threats to water resources management in China. Projecting river basin responses to dryness conditions is beneficial to effectively managing water resources. However, existing studies have seldom considered the impact of multiple dryness conditions on future river basin health under global warming. Therefore, we combine the 3- and 12-month standard precipitation evapotranspiration index (SPEI) and reliability-resilience-vulnerability framework (RRV) to map future river basin health based on the responses of basins across China to different dryness conditions from 2021 to 2050. The calculation is based on downscaled outputs of 10 models from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) for three future emission scenarios (i.e., RCP2.6, RCP4.5 and RCP8.5). The results show that water deficits are projected to occur in most areas of China and significantly increase in the basins located in the northern part of China in the next 30 years due to global warming effects. The conditions in parts of the basins located in the northern part of China (especially in the Northwest River basins and Yellow River basin) are projected to be unhealthy and deteriorate significantly in the future, while the basins located in the southern part of China are projected to be moderate. The health status is anticipated to be worse under the RCP8.5 scenario than the RCP2.6 and RCP4.5 scenarios. Integrated results from the three thresholds indicated that normal dryness is applicable to most areas of northeastern, northern and southern China, while abnormal dryness is applicable to the remaining areas. Our findings could help reduce the impact of future dryness conditions on water resources and provide insights into risk planning and management for river basins in China under global warming.

Comparison of water resources management between China and the United States

As the world's top two economies, the United States (U.S.) and China face a number of similar water resources problems. Yet, few studies have been done to systematically compare policies and approaches on water resources management between China and the U.S. This study compares water resources policies of China and the U.S. in the areas of national authority, water supply, water quality, and ecosystem use of the water to draw lessons learned and shed light on water resources management in China, the U.S., and the rest of the world. The lessons learned from the comparison include six aspects. 1) New paradigms of people-water harmony and a water-saving society are urgently needed to address the pressing water crisis and achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs). 2) A comprehensive, consistent, forward-looking national policy is necessary to achieve sustainable use of water resources. 3) Empowerment of river basin commissions with comprehensive authority over the integrative management of air, land, water, and biological resources in the river basin could significantly enhance the benefits and effectiveness of economic development and environmental protection. 4) Expansion of water exchange through market mechanisms among water users promotes efficient and beneficial water uses. 5) Use of water for ecosystem services should be an integral part of water resources management. China has set up a national blueprint for achieving ecological civilization; maintaining appropriate amounts of flow in rivers and lakes for maintenance of wildlife and fisheries and ecosystems should be institutionalized as part of this national strategy as well. 6) By sharing their rich experiences and lessons in water resources management, economic development, and ecological protection with other countries, China and the U.S. can help the world to achieve global human-water harmony and the UN SDGs.

Evaluation on the integrated water resources management in China’s major cities -- Based on City Blueprint® Approach

Though with abundant water resources in China, unevenly geographical and temporal distribution of water resources have constantly resulted in many severe water issues in various cities, such as inundation, drought, urban flooding, water shortage, water pollution, and inaccessibility of safe drinking water, in addition to the negative impacts of climate change. Intensive industrialization, fast urbanization, and prompt modernization have aggravated the water conflicts between different stakeholders. Furthermore, nearly 60% of Chinese population is agglomerated in urban area to exacerbate the water stress in cities, especially in megacities. In order to evaluate the performance of the integrated water resources management (IWRM) in major cities in China, and to reveal the key obstacles and challenges to the IWRM in these cities for future improvement, the modified City Blueprint® Approach, in combining with the hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA), were applied to examine the efficiency, effectiveness, and capability of the IWRM in 32 selected major cities in China, including 4 municipalities directly under the Central Government, 27 provincial capitals, and Shenzhen (a fast-emerging city located on the Pearl River Delta). The City Blueprint® Approach, consisting of three complementary frameworks, is a systematic analytic and diagnostic tool to assess the major challenges to cities (Trends and Pressures Framework, TPF), to appraise the management of urban water cycle (City Blueprint Framework, CBF), and to identify the paths of water governance improvement (Governance Capacity Framework, GCF). Significant differences have been observed between various districts and different cities. For TPF, in general, environmental pressures increase as the city scale expands, where river peak discharges and urban drainage flood are two common environmental challenges encountered by all cities. Social pressures decline and the financial pressures slightly decrease as city scale enlarged, where economic pressure and education rate are dominant indicators within each city category, respectively. For CBF, all cities have realized a great achievement in providing good basic water services, in addition to excellent performance of five indicators, drinking water quality, access to drinking water, access to sanitation, wastewater treatment, and management and action plans. In contrast, nutrient and energy recovery, public participation, and solid waste recycling, are the most critical issues to be resolved by all cities. For GCF, higher score in Enabling symbolizes the good performance of governance capacity to result in well management and action plans. Unfortunately, low score in Knowing, especially in the condition of useful knowledge, has caused the poor performance of public participation. Through HCA, the similarities and disparities between cities within diverse city categories were also revealed. In order to enhance the IWRM in major cities in China, various recommendations for future improvement were then provided, accordingly.

Socioeconomic drivers of water withdrawals driven by provincial energy demand in China

Energy and water resources are essential to human beings, and energy and water systems are closely interconnected. Existing studies have quantified the energy-water nexus in China, but the socioeconomic factors that influence the provincial energy-water nexus have not been assessed. This study quantified the water withdrawals driven by the provincial final demand of energy products, and explored the driving factors of the provincial energy-water nexus in China from 2007 to 2012. The results show that actions to reduce the water withdrawals should focus on the changes in energy demand structure and per capita energy demand in economically developed and populous provinces (e.g., Beijing, Guangdong, and Jiangsu). For water-scarce and energy resource-abundant provinces (e.g., Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, and Anhui), the changes in water withdrawal intensity and production structure will have more impacts on water withdrawal reductions. Furthermore, the reduction of water withdrawals in Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang, Shanxi, and Anhui is highly linked to the energy demand in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, and Jiangsu. Population growth has small effects on the energy-water nexus in China. Considering inter-provincial trade in energy-water-related policies can contribute to sustainable energy and water resource management in China.

Research on the Allocation of Flood Drainage Rights of the Sunan Canal Based on a Bi-level Multi-Objective Programming Model

To reduce flood disasters and optimize of the comprehensive benefit of the water basin, the allocation of regional flood drainage rights is of great significance. Using the “top-down” allocation mode, we consider the influence of the social, economic, and ecological environments, flood drainage demand and efficiency, and other factors on the allocation of flood drainage rights. A bi-level multi-objective programming model from the perspective of fairness and efficiency is established for the allocation. The Sunan Canal is taken as a typical case study. The model is solved by the multi-objective optimal allocation method and the master–slave hierarchical interactive iteration algorithm. After three iterations of the initial solution, the allocation of flood drainage rights in six flood control regions finally reach an effective state. The results of the model were compared with results based on historical allocation principles, showing that the bi-level multi-objective programming model, based on the principles of fairness and efficiency, is more in line with the current social and economic development of the canal. In view of the institutional background of water resources management in China and the flood drainage pressure faced by various regions, the allocation of flood drainage rights should be comprehensively considered in combination with various factors, and the market mechanism should be utilized to optimize the allocation.