Impacts of, and Vulnerability and Adaptation to, Climate Change in Water Resources and Agricultural Sectors in China

human development, climate change

Developing and sustainably utilize the coastal mudflat areas in China

Coastalmudflat areas are regarded as the important reserve land resource in China. Rational exploitation and development of the mudflat areas can relieve the stress of inadequate land resources. Probing into the developing models of resource exploitation of coastal tidal mudflats is one of the important components of achieving the sustainable development in the coastal areas. Therefore, the development history of coastal mudflats after 1950s in China is briefly introduced in this paper. Then, the status in quo of the modes of development and utilization of coastal mudflat in China the paper is reviewed with a special attention payed to the agricultural use of coastal resource, especially halophytes and improved salt-tolerant varieties planting, agricultural dyke pond and coastal saline-alkali soil remediation. Based on related research frontier, sustainable developmental prospects of these coastal areas are presented as well. (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier B.V

Groundwater overexploitation in the North China Plain: A path to sustainability

Over-pumping of aquifers is a worldwide problem, mainly caused by agricultural water use. Among its consequences are the falling dry of streams and wetlands, soil subsidence, die-off of phreatophytic vegetation, saline water intrusion, increased pumping cost and loss of storage needed for drought relief. Stopping or reversing the trend requires management interventions. The North China Plain serves as an example. A management system is set up for a typical county. It contains three components: monitoring, decision support based on modelling, and implementation in the field. Besides all monitoring data, the decision support module contains an irrigation calculator, a box model, and a distributed groundwater model to project the outcomes of different water allocation scenarios. In view of grain security, a solution combines an adaptation of the cropping system with imports of surface water from the South. The Open Access book does not only describe the problem and the path to its solution. It also gives access to nine manuals concerning methods used. They include computer programs and the game Save the Water. The Chinese experience should be of considerable interest to other regions in the world which suffer from over-pumping of aquifers

Impact of Water Scarcity on the Fenhe River Basin and Mitigation Strategies

This study produced a drought map for the Fenhe River basin covering the period from 150 BC to 2012 using regional historical drought records. Based on meteorological and hydrological features, the characteristics and causes of water scarcity in the Fenhe River basin were examined, along with their impact on the national economy and ecological environment. The effects of water scarcity in the basin on the national economy were determined from agricultural, industrial, and domestic perspectives. The impact on aquatic ecosystems was ascertained through an evolution trend analysis of surface water systems, including rivers, wetlands, and slope ecosystems, and subterranean water systems, including groundwater and karst springs. As a result of these analyses, strategies are presented for coping with water scarcity in this basin, including engineering countermeasures, such as the construction of a water network in Shanxi, and the non-engineering approach of groundwater resource preservation. These comprehensive coping strategies are proposed with the aim of assisting the prevention and control of water scarcity in the arid and semi-arid areas of China

China\u27s ineffective water pollution policy: an issue of enforcement

China faces an immense water crisis characterized by serious water pollution and water scarcity. The country’s rapid economic development over the past decades occurred without the restrictions of environmental protection standards. In the past twenty years, China has made great strides towards environmental protection, including developing one of the world’s most comprehensive set of environmental laws. However, the condition of China’s water continues to devolve as issues of enforcement prevent environmental law from becoming reality. This enforcement gap is the primary issue in China’s environmental policy. Prioritization of the economy over the environment, decentralization of enforcement power, powerless NGOs and EPBs, along with corruption and low public awareness of environmental issues create an enforcement gap that highlights weaknesses in the Chinese system and poses a sustainability threat to China and the global community. China’s water and environment cannot see significant improvements until the policies set out by the central government are enforced at the national and local levels

Swallows and Settlers

Between the 1890s and the Second World War, twenty-five million people traveled from the densely populated North China provinces of Shandong and Hebei to seek employment in the growing economy of China's three northeastern provinces, the area known as Manchuria. This was the greatest population movement in modern Chinese history and ranks among the largest migrations in the world. Swallows and Settlers is the first comprehensive study of that migration. Drawing methods from their respective fields of economics and history, the coauthors focus on both the broad quantitative outlines of the movement and on the decisions and experiences of individual migrants and their families. In readable narrative prose, the book lays out the historical relationship between North China and the Northeast (Manchuria) and concludes with an examination of ongoing population movement between these regions since the founding of the People's Republic in 1949

Provincial government and regional development

This research uses a case study of Xinjiang to challenge China's reform by addressing the problems rooted in its partiality and regionalisation. The reform started in the field of political administration and toleration of decentralisation and marketisation in the economic sphere has generated economic prosperity in some regions. But economic reform was not necessarily accompanied by political transformation. Most characteristics of socialism have been retained, including political discretion and economic bailout. Both are regarded as major causes to economic weakness in some sectors and some provinces. The central argument for the continuation of the partial reform is decentralisation of decision-making to the local political state, enabling local government to give a "helping hand" in facilitating change. But the partiality of the reform drives local governments in those regions with political sensitivities to become a "political defender", holding back the progress of the reform there. Such unbalanced and unparalleled developments amongst the regions and institutions has create imbalances in provinces such as Xinjiang, challenging the success of China's reform overall. In politically sensitive regions, the Communist Party has retained an administrative stranglehold and development has stagnated, not only calling into question the sustainability the reforms but also potentially threatening China's unity and political stability. The thesis uses Xinjiang, which is politically very sensitive, because of its ethnicity and strategic resources, to argue this point