Ecological compensation mechanism controlled by both river ecological water demand and regional water rights

Xinjian Guan; Tianhao Ruan; Yu Meng; Hao Zhang; Jianlin Wei

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.176137

Ecological compensation mechanism controlled by both river ecological water demand and regional water rights

Sci Total Environ. 2024 Dec 1:954:176137. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.176137. Epub 2024 Sep 7.

Authors

Xinjian Guan¹, Tianhao Ruan¹, Yu Meng², Hao Zhang³, Jianlin Wei¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Water Conservancy and Transportation, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan 450001, PR China; Yellow River Laboratory, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan 450001, PR China.
² School of Water Conservancy and Transportation, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan 450001, PR China; Yellow River Laboratory, Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, Henan 450001, PR China. Electronic address: mengyu8@zzu.edu.cn.
³ Yangtze River Survey Planning and Design Research Co., LTD, Wuhan, Hubei 430000, PR China.

PMID: 39250964
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.176137

Abstract

River ecological protection and rational utilization of water resources provide an important support for the sustainable development for human beings and nature. In view of the lack of ecological compensation research on river ecological water demand and socio-economic water demand, a mechanism and methodology for ecological compensation based on the synergistic control of river ecological water demand and river water rights allocation is proposed. The variable monthly flow method and the improved dynamic calculation method are applied to obtain the river basic and suitable ecological water demands as the river protection threshold. A two-layer decision model for water rights allocation is established, which realizes the cascading allocation of initial water rights from city to counties to sectors, and the socio-economic water usage threshold for each level is obtained based on the model. Developing compensation discrimination guidelines under the dual-threshold synergistic control and using the unilateral water resources value by sub-sector as the compensation standard, realize the quantification and sharing of compensation funds. The Nanyang section of the Bai River basin in China is used as an example. The ecological compensation value for wet year (2011), normal year (2012), and dry years (2014-2013) are 0, 15.09 × 10⁸ and 12.04 × 10⁸ (average value for dry years) RMB. The adoption of suitable ecological water demand thresholds in 2012 increases the ecological protection requirements thus leading to an internal compensation situation between Nanyang County and Xinye County. From 2014 to 2016, river runoff continued to be low, and excessive water intake from upstream lead to a chain of compensation situations in the midstream and downstream. It is essential to establish a basin and regionally nested ecological compensation mechanism. The research results are conducive to improving the eco-compensation theory and provide scientific references for water resources management and high-quality development in the basin.

Keywords: Compensation mechanism; Compensation value; Control threshold; River ecological water demand; Unit water price; Water rights allocation.