Variability of Water Resource in the Yellow River Basin of Past 50 Years, China

We use Mann–Kendall trend test and Lepage method to study spatial and temporal variations of the streamflow series over the past 50 years based on daily hydrologic data from six gauging stations in the Yellow River basin. Research results indicate that: (1) The streamflow of the Yellow River basin is decreasing and water resource deficit tends to be more serious from the upper to the lower Yellow River basin; (2) Zero-flow days are observed after 1970 and overwhelmingly prevail during 1990–2000. Moreover, zero-flow events are observed mainly during spring and summer; (3) Low flow events are more sensitive to climatic changes and human activities when compared to the high flow events, which is mainly reflected by larger fluctuation of timing of change points. Furthermore, the timing of change point of hydrologic events tends to be earlier from the upper to the lower Yellow River basin, indicating more intensive impacts of human activities on water resource in the lower Yellow River basin. The current research will be greatly helpful for sound and effective water resource management in the Yellow River basin, being characterized by serious water deficit.     

Impoundment Effects of the Three-Gorges-Dam on Flow Regimes in Two China’s Largest Freshwater Lakes

The impoundment of the Three-Gorges-Dam (TGD) significantly alters the flow regimes in Poyang and Dongting Lakes, the two largest freshwater lakes in China by reducing river discharge. This work aims to investigate the impoundment effects of the TGD on lake outflow and water level and clarify dynamic mechanism for the hydrological responses of both lakes to the TGD impoundment based on the typical case study. A hydrodynamic model is set up to simultaneously simulate hydrodynamics in the two lakes and the middle Yangtze River. Results show that TGD induces profound changes of the flow regimes in both lakes. The effects dynamically change with the TGD-induced Yangtze River discharge alteration, and are highly heterogeneous in space due to the complicated interactions between the lakes and the Yangtze River. The impoundment of the TGD accelerates Poyang Lake drainage. But that is not all for Dongting Lake, the TGD impoundment also reduces its water supply from the Yangtze River. The results from this work improve the understanding of the TGD impacts on the downstream river-lake system and provide scientific evidences for formulating better scheme for water resources management in this region.     

Hydropower Development Programming in China

In the light of the speech delivered by Mr.Zhou Dabing,Deputy Manager General of China National Electric Power Corporation,on its hosted “Hydropower Developing Seminar”, during the national “10th Fivc-ynar Plan” and the “Farsight Program to 2015”, the installed capacity of hydropower shall be up to 75GW by 2000,     

Study on Sustainable Development of Small Hydropower in China

China bears a high relief in thewest and low in the east, with complex topography, totaling 2/3 ofthe whole country‘s area for mountains, hilly regions and zigzag plateaus. Therefore the hydraulic resources are abundant, with potential hydraulic amount of about 680000MW, of which, small hydropower resource is very rich too and has great exploitable potential. According to general investigation in early 1980s,the exploitable amount reached 87000MW, ranking the top in the world.     

An Evaluation of China’s Water Footprint

The water footprint is an indicator of freshwater consumption that looks not only at direct water consumption of a consumer or producer, also at the indirect water consumption. The water footprint can be regarded as a comprehensive indicator of freshwater resources appropriation, next to the traditional and restricted measure of water withdrawal. Based on the concept and calculating method of water footprint, this paper estimates the water footprint of China in 2007. The result shows that the total water footprint of China is 856.34 × 10⁹ m³ and the per capita water footprint is 648.11 m³/year. The spatial difference of per capita water footprint is obvious among all provinces of China. Generally, the more developed cities, the southern and coastal provinces have a higher per capita water footprint, lower water footprint intensity and higher efficiency of water consumption, while the North West China has lower water utilization efficiency. China is one of the thirteen water scarce countries in the world and spatial distribution of water resources is non-uniform. In addition to the virtual water trade, government should apply advanced technology and best available management practices, improve the efficiency of water use, reduce virtual water content per unit product, and continue nation-wide readjustment of industrial structure to guarantee an efficient use of limited water resources.     

Quantifying the Human Induced Water Level Decline of China’s Largest Freshwater Lake from the Changing Underlying Surface in the Lake Region

In recent years, dramatic decline in China’s largest freshwater lake, Poyang Lake, has raised wide concerns about water supply and ecological crises in the middle–lower Yangtze River reaches. To assist in resolving the debates regarding the low water regime of the lake, the current study quantitatively assessed the enhanced water level decline from the changing underlying surface in the Poyang Lake region. It is the first time that the magnitude, temporal–spatial difference, trend development and background mechanism of lake water level variation and its causes are studied comprehensively. The results revealed that the changing underlying surface in the lake region has caused an average decline of annual water level of 0.26 m ~ 0.75 m across the lake during 2000–2014, which shows great seasonal and spatial differences. The enlarged outflow cross–section due to extensive sand mining was the major reason for the effect on water level decline in the northern lake. While, increased water surface gradient should be attributed to water level decline in the southern lake. The long–term increasing trend of annual lake water level decline reflects the cumulative effects of lake bottom topography change caused by the continuous south movement of sand mining activities.     

Contemporary legal analysis of China’s transboundary water regimes: international law in practice

China’s rapid development places growing pressure on its water resources, including its considerable transboundary waters. This paper analyses the current situation of China’s transboundary water regimes through a legal analytical framework. The evaluation of treaty and state practice reveals that while China adheres to and follows some fundamental rules of international water law, gaps remain. New trends in China’s state practice and in the field of international law offer interesting opportunities for addressing these shortcomings.     

Unpacking water conflicts: a reinterpretation of coordination problems in China’s water-governance system

In China, water conflicts have been traditionally framed as the external costs of economic development and tackled with technocratic measures. This study examines water conflicts through the lens of water diversion, water allocation and water functional zoning. It reframes water conflicts as a result of coordination problems nested in complex inter-jurisdictional interactions. With a game-theoretic illustration, it identifies that individual and group heterogeneities are two challenges to effective coordination. It argues that China’s state-centric water institutions are tailored to optimize overall social utilities, yet they constrain coordination due to insufficient costs and benefits redistribution mechanisms at the local level.     

Small Hydro Power Development in India —— Private Sector Participation

1 Introduction India has a history of 100 years in small hydro power. However the country upon independence in 1947 has switched over to exploiting larger hydropower projects, and thermal power projects （mainly coal） to meet massive requirements of power. Of late since 1991, environment driven awareness over large hydro projects, and entry of private sector entrepreneurs into SHP Sector have given tremendous impetuous to SHP Sector growth in the last decade of 20th century.     

Special Issue on Water Resources Construction in the Development of the West

General Thoughts on Water Resources Devel-opment In Western Regions In order to realize the objective of having abreakthrough in construction of infrastructure facilitiesand ecological environment, Ministry of Water Re-sources has proposed the Guiding Principles of WaterResources Development in West Regions as follows:     

How could water markets like Australia’s work in China?

What hurdles lie in the path of the Chinese government’s plan to introduce water trading? This question is addressed by reviewing lessons from establishing water markets in Australia, and then assessing an early scheme to create them in China. In Australia, markets in water opened up over several decades, with gradual recognition of what was needed to avoid negative third-party effects. Trading there is now crucial: in drought years nearly half the water used by farmers is traded. Australia’s experience throws light on the key requirements for a water market – though markets in China will, naturally, be fashioned to suit its own conditions. The pilot work by Tsinghua University in Gansu Province has led the way in having trading at the local level in China. Compared with Australia, however, rights are not as tradeable, metering is poor, and plots are tiny. Trading has mostly been by water user associations, made up of several hundred farmers, but this dampens the incentives that make markets effective – and can upset individual farmers. Possible ways past these hurdles are discussed.     

China’s practice on the non-navigational uses of transboundary waters: transforming diplomacy through rules of international law

China’s abundant transboundary water resources face new challenges as demands increase, internally and externally. As China seeks new ways to cooperate with its riparian neighbours, more attention is being paid to international water law in the evolving diplomatic practice across the region. China’s (mostly) bilateral transboundary water cooperation is here characterized as ‘responsive diplomacy’. This paper explores China’s state practice in this context and concludes by recommending that it moves from ‘responsive’ towards ‘preventive’ diplomacy. The author offers strategic and policy responses in order to effect this change.     

Hydel Power Development Issues, Counter Measures and Policies in Pakistan

1. Barriers ＆ Mitigation to Commercialization of Small Hydel Power Plants In Pakistan 1.1 Institutional Barriers In Pakistan, research, development and implementation of small ＆ micro hydel power on commercial scale has been hampered by a lack of cordination, institutional support, poor definition of mandates and responsibilities of the organizations. Until May, 2003, there was not a single central agency with the overall responsibility for policy, planning, targets, co-ordination and strategic management of this sector, although there were a number of disparate bodies set up with limited objectives and little coordination amongst different stakeholder.     

Estimation of Clark’s Instantaneous Unit Hydrograph Parameters and Development of Direct Surface Runoff Hydrograph

We present a method to estimate Time of Concentration (T _c) and Storage Coefficient (R) to develop Clark’s Instantaneous Unit Hydrograph (CIUH). T _c is estimated from Time Area Diagram of the catchment and R is determined using optimization approach based on Downhill Simplex technique (code written in FORTRAN). Four different objective functions are used in optimization to determine R. The sum of least squares objective function is used in a novel way by relating it to slope of a linear regression best fit line drawn between observed and simulated peak discharge values to find R. Physical parameters (delineation, land slope, stream lengths and associated drainage areas) of the catchment are derived from SPOT satellite imageries of the basin using ERDAS: Arc GIS is used for geographic data processing. Ten randomly selected rainfall–runoff events are used for calibration and five for validation. Using CIUH, a Direct surface runoff hydrograph (DSRH) is developed. Kaha catchment (5,598 km²), part of Indus river system, located in semi-arid region of Pakistan and dominated by hill torrent flows is used to demonstrate the applicability of proposed approach. Model results during validation are very good with model efficiency of more than 95% and root mean square error of less than 6%. Impact of variation in model parameters T _c and R on DSRH is investigated. It is identified that DSRH is more sensitive to R compared to T _c. Relatively equal values of R and T _c reveal that shape of DSRH for a large catchment depends on both runoff diffusion and translation flow effects. The runoff diffusion effect is found to be dominant.     

Factors influencing water level changes in China’s largest freshwater lake,Poyang Lake,in the past 50 years

This study analyses the changing characteristics in the level of Poyang Lake during the period 1960–2010. Results show that the changing stage of annual lake level variations is evident, and average onset time of the lake dry season has advanced since the 1990s. Investigation indicates that the Yangtze River discharge has a greater impact on annual lake level variations than the lake’s catchment inflow. Climate change in the Yangtze River basin since the 1990s is possibly the precondition for the advance of the lake dry season, which is further aggravated by the effects of the Three Gorges Dam in the 2000s.     

Hydro-electrification in China＇s Rural Areas

The installed capacity of hydropower stations rises rapidly, and in the whole country 800 counties are mainly depending on the electric power from small hydropower stations and their power grids. By the end of 2000, the installed capacity of hydropower from the water resources administrative bodies had amounted to 31.1GW, and the annual generation reached 94.5 billion kWh.