Research On The Evaluation Of Water Happiness Index And Its Empirical Study: A Case Of Hangzhou Section In Qiantang River

Water is the most essential element of human survival, and it becomes more andmore indispensable during the development of national economy. As an integral part of“natural-economy-society” system, the condition of water resource will positivelyimpact the development of economy. Since the height of "happiness" has been raised,water and other natural scientific work can also be solved by social sciences.However, there are still some serious problems related to the water resource, suchas uneven distribution of water resource, industrial and agricultural water technologylag behind, serious pollution and waste, residents unsatisfied, etc. These imply the needto enhance its social function. Then is became a necessary to find a way to examine thesocial welfare effects and evaluate the residents satisfaction of water resource, as well asprovide advices for government management policies.Qiantang River is the largest riverin Zhejiang Province, and it is one of the major rivers in the southeastern coastal areas,Hangzhou is located in the southeast coast of the northern part of our country, belongingto the abundant water resources region, Qiantang River flows through Hangzhou city,but there still are a variety of water issues. Based on happiness economics, happinesspsychology, this paper analysis the water situation of Qiantang River.Based upon a lot of related research both home and abroad, this paper put forwardthe concept of “Happiness Index”, which is proposed by Dr. Huixiong Chen, andcombines this with the real situation of Qiantang River to development a new objectiveindicator system, which reflects the happiness index of the water resource. This systemincludes six dimensions: Health, Sustainability, Income&Expenditure, Technology,Fairness and Eco-environment of Water resource. Using Delphi as a tool to identifyeffective indicators, the writer collected five districts government record data(Hangzhou,Fuyang, Jiande, Chunan, Tonglu), as well as questionnaire survey, a final index systemconsisting subjective index and objective index was developed.In terms of research results, after the objective and subjective data analyse, thispaper got conclusions as follow:the happiness index of the residents of the QiantangRiver Hangzhou section is lower middle, the leeding reason is that water quality has notmet people’s expectations; beside this, the development and utilization of waterresources is also a major problem needed to be solved; the situation of five cities are about the same level, and the subjective and objective indicators show the almost sameresults, the comprehensive ranking for five cisies are as follows: Chunan, Tonglu, Jiande,Hangzhou, Fuyang; IPA analysis found three kinds of factors: concentrate here (waterhealth and water resources sustainability), low priority (technical and economiccontribution of water resources, water costs, water environment), possibleoverkill(water fairness), and there is no satisfactory advantages aspects, namely thevarious aspects of water resources are to be promptly improved and enhanced. Andaccording to this situation, this paper promotes these proposals:improve the waterquality,reduce the pollution in water; increase public awareness of water conservation,the government encouraged to install water-saving appliances; improve the urbanenvironment, improve and expand water resources ornamental value; enhance watertechnology, improve the economic contribution of water resources.