Enforcing the science and policy interface

-Experiences from ACEDP Inland River Basin Project

Dr Yongping Wei

Australia-China Centre on Water Resources Research

the University of Melbourne

Dr Hang Zheng

Tsinghua University

Philosophy of managing river basins

Policy/practice

Capacity building

Science/research

Natural similarity between Australia and China

Northwest of China

Murray-Darling Basin

Tarim River

Sule Hei

Shiyang

Similarity:•Drought•Water shortage•Ecological Degradation•Adaption to Climate

Change•… Murray-Darling Basin Shiiyang Basin

Institutional similarity between Australia and China

National level

State/Province

River Basin

Farmers

China Australia• National No.1 Document, 2011– the

only one of water as No.1 since 1949.

• “Three Red Lines” for water use: quota, efficiency and quality.

• The twelve Five-Year plan of Gansu• The regulation of water use permission

and fee collection in Gansu.

• Integrated water use planning in Gansu

• Integrated water resources restoration plan in the Shiyang River Basin

• Integrated plan for water utilization and ecological protection in Shule River Basin

• Canals lining

• Agricultural & irrigation water saving • Water rights system for the farmers

• Australia’s National Water Initiative

• National Water Quality Management Strategy

• Water use cap and basin cut in MDB

• Northern Region Sustainable Water Strategy

• Recycling• Living Melbourne, Living Victoria

• Guide to the Proposed Basin Plan of Murray Darling

• Integrated water resource management in the Goulburn Broken Catchment

• Rubicon Canals controlling system

• Northern Victoria Irrigation Renewal Project

• Water trading among the farmers

Comparative study- national levelChina Australia

Three Red Lines

National Annual Cap(2020): 670,000 GL

Water Use Volume

Water Use efficiency

Water Quality National security of drinking water (urban and rural)

National average irrigation water consumption rate: 55%

0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

1949 1980 2000 2003 2006 2009 2012 2015 2018

Wat

er U

se (

100

0 G

L) Caps in 1994

Comparative study- State levelChina-Gansu Australia-Victoria

Victoria Sustainable Water StrategiesFive Years Planning2011-2015

2006-2010

2001-2005

1996-2000

1991-1995

Project Indicator for planning Unit 20102015

Change Up to

Water Allocation Water Use Cap 100 million m3 121 4.4 125

Water SavingWater Use per GDP m3/10000

Yuan 351 -131 220

Irrigation Water Use Rate   0.51 0.03 0.54

Rural Drinking Water Secured population 10000 616 650 1266

Flood Control Length of the Dike Km 3635 1200 4835

Metering Hydrologic Stations   93 3 96

Planning Index of Gansu, 2011-2015

Comparative study- Catchment levelChina Australia

Duration Based Water Allocation(1800s-2011)

Capacity Sharing(1980s-2011)

Inflow

Evaporation

Supply

The water entitlement is expressed by the fixed number of water extraction days within a year. Water users can manage and store stream flow independently during their allocation duration. The water authority is only responsible for water use planning and accounting. The hydrological risk is taken by water users while they get more flexibility to make their own decisions on storage and use.

The concept of the duration-based water rights is similar to capacity sharing in Australia. Both of the systems promote decentralized management by allowing individual water users to exercise a degree of control over storage decisions. Thus, both approaches are helpful to address the problems of hydrological risk, asymmetric information and transaction costs of water delivery in centralized water management.

Comparative study- Farm levelChina Australia

Science inform policy-an example

Expected outcomes by the end of the project

An approach for enforcing the science and policy interface to improve the river basin manager’s capacity of managing the threats to sustainable water resources developmentin the context of river basins interactively connected to the national-level, state-level and farm level water management activities.

Outcomes: scoping projects together• Managing river basins for more resilient ecosystems and

more sustainable consumptive uses: an international comparative study-ARC-linkage ($ 941k, Submitted); (Tsinghua University); 2011

• Understanding cultural and ecological triggers for policies against water catchment degradationfunded by Chinese Natural Sciences Foundation Committee; (3 m Yuan, CAS); 2011

• Australian Endeavour Award for Professor Qi Feng from CAS; CAS’s Distinguished Overseas Professor Award for Professor John Langford from the University of Melbourne; 2010

• Systemic and adaptive water governance: lessons for Australia from China and South Africa-ARC-linkage project;(CAS), 2009

Farms, Rivers and Market funded by Australian National Water Committee ( $20m ) and Heihe River Basin Research Program funded by Chinese Natural Sciences Foundation Committee (150 m Yuan), 2009

Outcomes: co-production of knowledgeJournal Papers• Yongping Wei, Hang Zheng, John Langford, Guodong Cheng. 2011. 变化环境下流域管理

的知识创新机制 . 地球科学进展 (accepted)• Hang Zheng; Zhongjing Wang; Hector Malano; and Yongping Wei. 2011. A water allocation-

trading framework for duration-based water rights system in China ， Agricultural Water Management(submitted);

• Shuai Wang, Bojie Fu and Yongping Wei (30%). 2011. Finding the Third Hand to Manage Ecosystem Services. Ambio (Accepted)

• Hang Zheng; Zhongjing Wang; Siyi Hu; and Yongping Wei.2011. A comparative study of the performance of public water rights allocation in China ， Water Resources Management. (accepted)

• Yonggang Yang, Honglang Xiao, Yongping Wei, Liangju Zhao, Songbing Zou, Zhenliang Yin and Qin Yang. 2011. Hydrologic processes in the different landscape zones of Mafengou River basin in the alpine cold region during the melting period. 2011. Journal of Hydrology. (in press)

• Yonggang Yang, Honglang Xiao, Yongping Wei, Songbing Zou, Liangju Zhao, Qiu Yang. 2011. Hydrological processes in the different landscape zones in alpine cold region in wet season

combining isotopic and hydrochemical tracers. Hydrological Processes. (accepted) • Bo-Jie Fu Chang-Hong Su Yongping Wei Ian R. Willett Yi-He Lu Guo-Hua Liu. 2011. Double

counting in ecosystem services valuation: causes and countermeasures. Ecological Research. 26:1-14.

Policy briefing • Recommendation to the Ministry of Water Resources on how to implementing the three

red lines of No.1 Document based on Australian Basin Plan (under way);Incorporation of Australian experiences into the basin plan of the Shiyang River Basin and

Shule River Basin

Outcomes: friendship-based partnerships

• Integrated catchment management, Cold and Arid Regions Environment and Engineering Research Institute; Chinese Academy of Sciences;

• Application of remote sensing in water resource management, Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower research, the Ministry of Water Resources;

• Water and environmental governance under climate change, Policy Research Centre for Environment and Economy, Ministry of Environmental Protection;

• Catchment ecosystem services, Research Centre of Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences;

• Water allocation and water trading, Tsinghua University.

Benefit for Australia• Exchange Eco-hydrological modelling;• Demonstrate Australian water market and river basin management

approach in Chinese inland river basins;• Showcase Australian water stewardship approach to Chinese river basin

management;• Export Australian Rubicon channel control system to China;• Improve Australian scientists to access to Chinese funding.

Lessons: adapting to changes• Wider project objectives;• More flexible team;• Joint-activities;• Parallel and complementary projects.

Thanks