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The new concept of water resources management in China: ensuring water security in changing environment

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Abstract

The Chinese government has planned to adopt the strictest water resource management (SWRM) system as a new concept to tackle the increasing water shortages the country facing with economic development and population growth. In this paper, the present status of China’s water resources including low availability of per capita water resources, uneven temporal and spatial distributions, inconsistency in spatial distributions and productivity, and fragile water ecology and environment has been discussed. The challenges in water resources due to population growth, economic development and climate change have also been analyzed. The essence of the new policy of SWRM to promote coordination between supporting capacity of water resources and socioeconomic development, harmonious interactions between human and nature, and changes in traditional lifestyles and activities is discussed. Finally, the measures taken to implement the new system and achievements toward the target have been discussed. Study reveals that SWRM is a promising concept which has the potential to control total amount of water use, increase water use efficiency and reduce water pollution.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51309155, 41330854), National Basic Research Program of China (No. 2010CB951104 and 2010CB951103), Strategic Consulting Projects of Chinese Academy of Engineering (NO: 2016-ZD-08-05-02) and Open Research Fund of State Key Laboratory of Simulation and Regulation of Water Cycle in River Basin China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research) (NO: IWHR-SKL-201515) for providing financial support for this research. We are also thankful to anonymous reviewers and editors for their helpful comments and suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Hydrology-Water Resources and Hydraulic Engineering, Nanjing Hydraulic Research Institute, Nanjing, 210029, China

    Xiao-jun Wang & Jian-yun Zhang

  2. Research Center for Climate Change, Ministry of Water Resources, Nanjing, 210029, China

    Xiao-jun Wang & Jian-yun Zhang

  3. State Key Laboratory of Water Environment Simulation, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China

    Xiao-jun Wang & Xing-hui Xia

  4. Department of Water Resources, Ministry of Water Resources, Beijing, 100053, China

    Juan Gao

  5. Hohai University, Nanjing, 210098, China

    Juan Gao

  6. Faculty of Civil Engineering, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310, Johor Bahru, Malaysia

    Shamsuddin Shahid

  7. Water Management Center, Ministry of Water Resources, Beijing, 100053, China

    Zhi Geng

  8. Taihu Basin Authority, Ministry of Water Resources, Shanghai, 200434, China

    Li Tang

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  1. Xiao-jun Wang
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Correspondence to Xiao-jun Wang.

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Wang, Xj., Zhang, Jy., Gao, J. et al. The new concept of water resources management in China: ensuring water security in changing environment. Environ Dev Sustain 20, 897–909 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-017-9918-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-017-9918-8

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