| What is the next crisis after oil crisis? The answer to this question is water crisis, which has already been known to us.With the fast growth of world population and rapid increase of world economy, water resources have turned out to be shorter and shorter, and as a result the contradiction between supply and demand of water resources will become more and more prominent in the new century. Water is the source of the life, and the crisis of water resources has led politics and economy of the world into turbulence. Thus, water problem has become one of primary problems in the sustainable development. China is one of the countries that are seriously short of water in the world, whose northwestern and northern areas are suffering from the shortage of water. Especially, the Yellow River, as one of the cradles of Chinese nation, has faced the danger of drying up in recent years. Obviously, this has become one of urgent tasks in our economic development process. Based on this problem, the dissertation begins with the relevant research.This dissertation analyzes the management system of water resources, and aims at probing into the institutional innovation and institutional arrangement of the Yellow River Basin. This dissertation firstly introduces the quo status of the shortage of world water resources, and then emphatically analyzes the water resources shortage of the Yellow River in China. Since the foundation of New China, the management of the Yellow River Basin can't be regarded as successful in the past over 50 years, although a large amount of manpower and materials has been put into it. Actually, the worrying circumstances in the past and at present are caused by many reasons, one of which is mainly that the management system of the Yellow River Basin fails to meet the social and economic development of the basin. The management system of the Yellow River Basin took shape under planned economy, whose original task was to prevent flood and to develop the water resources of the Yellow River. This practice has ignored other respects of basin management, and as a result has formed the present problems. It is generally believed that the problems of the Yellow River lie in its drying up or the shortage of water resources. Actually, more important than the problems is the sedimentation of the downstream riverway of the Yellow River, namely the environmental problem of the low reaches of the Yellow River. The dry-up of the Yellow River has become more frequent and severe since thel990s, which has drawn the concern of the public to the problem and has to be solved by adjusting the amount of water by the State Council. Nowadays, the general public know little about the environmental problem of the low reaches of the Yellow River, which constitutes one of the important problems of sustainable development for the whole YellowRiver Basin. It is doubtless that the problem should be made known to the public and the decisive measures should be taken to solve it. Otherwise, it will bring about serious consequence if developed out of control. It is worthwhile to mention that the government has attached great importance to the problem. The problems of the Yellow River are mainly embodied in five aspects: the threat from flood towards the low reaches, the sedimentation of the downstream riverway, the losses of water and soil of Loess Plateau, water pollution and the shortage of water resources. These five aspects acts on one another and influences one another, so the settlement of every problem should be based on the management of the whole basin. However, the management system of the Yellow River Basin is inadequate in this respect at present. For example, in order to solve the dry-up of the Yellow River in 1999, only by authorizing the relevant basin organizations through the State Council was the adjustment of water amount implemented. Facing so many problems of the Yellow River Basin, the basin organizations have not adapted their function correspondingly. In short, the demand and the supply for the basin management system are out of balance. In fact, what the basin organizations adopted is not the basin management, but water administration management by replacing the basin management. Successful basin management includes water administration management, which is just part of the basin management rather than the whole content. As far as the management of the Yellow River Basin is concerned, it not only requires to increase more new contents in basin management but also to innovate the system of basin management as soon as possible.The contents, involved in the innovation in the management system of the Yellow River Basin, not only refer to the innovation of distribution system of water resources, but also to the innovation of basin management system, which is more important. With the emergence of the shortage of water resources in China, the discussions about water property, water price and water market have been introduced into the management system of water resources in recent years. Undoubtedly, these discussions will greatly help people to change ideas and to widen horizons. However, these discussions are still at a theoretical level after all and difficult to be put into practice at present. Water property, water price and the formation of water market are closely related to such factors as politics, economy, history and water resources etc. at a regional or national level, and changeable with the change of these factors. A brand-new distribution system of water resources must meet the economic development of the Yellow River Basin, and has guarantee the sound operation of the water resources system of the Yellow River. The Yellow River Basin are an ecosystem, and the basic prerequisite of its sustainable development is to keep the basin ecosystem balanced, which is often ignored in the course of carrying out this although known to people to some extent. As far as the basin management is concerned, the ignorance are mainly revealed in the fact that water administration management replaces basin management and all the basinorganizations are under the jurisdiction of Ministry of Water Resources. As a result, the distribution system of water resources is difficult to implement, let alone the implementation of the overall basin management. The management of the Yellow River Basin is a particular example.The management of the Yellow River Basin is a comprehensive, multi-centered and overall one, embodying the requirements of the new era. Since the foundation of New China, the management of the Yellow River Basin has experienced the development of more than 50 years. So the understanding of the Yellow River should be deepened instead of staying on the previous level. It is clear that only by renewing ideas can the innovation of management system of the Yellow River Basin be realized; only by introducing the brand-new ideas of the interrelation between population, environment and resources firstly, can the innovation of management system of the Yellow River Basin be established. In the past, the general understanding of the ecological environment of the Yellow River was always bound up with the losses of water and soil of Loess Plateau, and the method to deal with the losses was to build high dams to prevent mud, sand and flood from reaching the Yellow River Basin. Nowadays, the environmental problem of the Yellow River is the serious sedimentation of the downstream riverway, which is directly related to the large dams built along the master stream of the Yellow River and to the excessive development of water resources. The exploitation of the water resources of the Yellow River mainly lies in generating electricity and developing planned irrigated agriculture at the same time on the basis of implementing the wash-away of the sedimentation or of keeping the wash-away of the sedimentation balanced with practical and secure measures, rather than in expanding irrigated area and generating electricity by waterpower blindly. For this reason, the primary goal of the management of the Yellow River Basin is to guarantee the water amount of washing away the sand of the downstream riverway, which in turn requires the methodological management of the ecological systems of the Yellow River Basin. Adaptive management, one of the main measures to adopt the methodological management of the ecological systems, means that all the systems of basin management must agree with the contents of basin management, and pays much attention to adapting itself to the ecosystem of the basin. In the past, the management system of the Yellow River Basin has been short of such adaptive management that the excessive exploitation of ecosystem such as building large dams and excessively developing water resources has done great harm to ecosystem, without any consideration of the value of the Yellow River flood at all. If things go on like this, the sedimentation of the downstream riverway will increase by 2 to 4 meters, compared with that of the early days of the foundation of New China. At present, the downstream riverways are generally 4 to 6 meters higher than the ground and even 10 meters higher than the ground in some locations, which are called Aboveground River.Besides, another aboveground river called The Second Aboveground River is formed over the riverway, resulting from the sedimentation of mud and sand. Under this circumstance, several kinds of consequences will come into being: a. The elevation of riverbed certainly will impel people to heighten the levee of the Yellow River; b. The flood threat towards the low reaches of the Yellow River will arise; c. In the situation of the shortage of water resources day by day, the water amount of billions of cubic meters has to be offered to adjust water and adjust sand every year; d. Unsuccessful dredging flood of the downstream riverway results in the dependence on the reservoir along the upper and middle reaches to prevent flood, which requires more reservoir to be built along the upper and middle reaches, and as a consequence the reservoir along the upper and middle reaches further changes the hydrologic characteristics of the low reaches and increases the sedimentation of mud and sand. Appearances of every kind of the above-mentioned consequences have increased the management cost of the Yellow River Basin, which means the reduction of benefit. Again and again, the Yellow River falls into a predicament at present, caused by the technical lean in the management of the basin in the past, while the methodological management of the basin ecological systems is a kind of correction towards this.The dissertation consists of six chapters, whose contents are made up of two parts. Part one is from chapter one to chapter three, while part two from chapter four to chapter six. Part one mainly introduces the shortage of global water resources, including the shortage of water resources in China, the factors of causing the shortage, the policies and research of water resources at home and abroad and the management theories of water resources under sustainable development. Part two aims at the typical problems of water resources of the Yellow River and the research towards its management system.Chapter one is the preface of the dissertation. It shows that the shortage of global water resources is a problem that mankind faces together. Generally speaking, The world reserves of water resources is very abundant, while the water amount used for production and living is quite limited. Especially since the industrial revolution, mankind has developed and utilized the water resources with increasing speed. As a result, such factors, as the rapid growth of population, the improvement of development ability and the water pollution arising from economic development, lead to the shortage of global water resources. Although water resources are renewable, they will turn out to be non-renewable if the speed to utilize them exceeds the speed to renew them. How to make good use of the limited water resources is one of the problems in economic development of our times, and the effective management of water resources is one of necessary conditions for mankind to realize sustainable development.Chapter two points out that the United Nations, World Bank, many governments and non-governmental organizations have made great contribution to promoting themanagement of water resources. The book, whose title is Quiet Spring, has revealed the prelude of mankind's understanding towards environment. Early in the seventies of last century, international community started to attach importance to environment. In the past more than 30 years, the mankind's understanding towards water and environment has improved progressively. From the conference of the United Nations on water held in Argentina in 1977 to the conference of the United Nations on sustainable development held in Johannesburg of South Africa to 2003, water problem had been a topic that the world had paid close attention to together. Especially in the international conference on water and environment held by the United Nations in Dublin of Ireland in 1992, the four principles of water utilization were confirmed, which pointed out the direction of promoting the effective use of water resources. Under this circumstance, the water management policies of World Bank has promoted the rational utilization of water resources, and the development of contemporary economic theories on environment and resources has laid the theoretical foundation for sustainable development. Besides, the scholars of our country have launched the research of the management theories of water resources to with the view of the shortage of water resources of the Yellow River, including the research of water resources of the Yellow River developed by such Professors as Hu Angang etc.Chapter three analyzes the characteristic of the water resources, puts forward the research methods for the sustainability of water resources system, summarizes the general existing problems with such characteristics as external, short-term, long-term, risky and indefinite for the managements of water resources, and meanwhile points out that the research of the management system of water resources should be based on such theories as environmental ethics, environmental economics and institutional economics.Chapter four mainly introduces the economy and society of the Yellow River Basin, and the problems of water resources of the Yellow River, and further analyzes the causes of these problems. As a result, it emphatically points out that the primary cause lies in the replacement of the basin management with water administration management, and that the excessive development caused by the technical lean of water resources and the lack of systematic and intact strategy plans of water resources are also notable and important causes.Chapter five analyzes water property system and water price system in the management of water resources of the Yellow River now, points out the defect of the distribution system of water resources at present, and puts forward the new thought of distributing water resources. The 90% of water resources of the Yellow River is used for agricultural irrigation, and the water price policy made by the country can't be used in the water price system of the Yellow River. The reason lies in not considering the history and quo status of the agriculture of the Yellow River Basin. In fact, the formulation of waterprice of the Yellow River should be based on the consideration of comprehensive factors rather than on the cost of supplying water only. Water price in theory is ignorant of political and economic factors, which results in failing to carry out it in the face of the irrigated agriculture of the Yellow River Basin. And the effective distribution of water resources of the Yellow River consists in launching the transfer of water property, which requires to cultivate market mechanism and to establish necessary projects of distributing water.Chapter six points out that as far as the management of the Yellow River Basin is concerned, close attention should be paid to the ecosystem within the basin. The management of the basin under sustainable development is supposed to be a comprehensive, multi-centered and overall management pattern. Basin management should start with the ecological environmental protection, and then establish a series of new systems adaptive to the basin economic development and to the ecological environment balance. The innovation of the system is the first necessary step. Based on the experience and lesson of the management of the basin for decades, the basin organizations of the Yellow River should become a group whose decision-making and management are supposed to combine the professional knowledge in such disciplines as environment, economics, ecology, engineering and planning etc..The innovation of the dissertation is revealed in the following several points, which are put forward by aiming at the obviously ineffective measures that has still been taken so far in the management system of the Yellow River Basin.? From the angles of system, environment and ecology, this dissertation analyzes the problems of water resources of the Yellow River deeply and puts forward the three causes resulting in these problems, which is what the basin organizations of the Yellow River has not realized so far.? This dissertation puts forward that the management of water resources will realize the two transitions, namely from planned system to market system and from supply management to demand management.? The management of the Yellow River Basin is a comprehensive, multi-centered and overall management pattern, whose organization is a group integrating governments, organizations, and enterprise into an organic whole.? The adaptive management of basin ecosystem should be implemented in the process of managing the Yellow River Basin.? The water price of the Yellow River should not aim at reclaiming the cost.
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