The No. 1 Central Committee document of 2011 explicitly proposed that China implement the strictest water resources management system. The No. 3 State Council document of 2012 further specified three red lines for total volume, efficiency, and pollution control. Wu Fengping and others compiled the Research on Coupling Allocation Methods of Initial Water Rights in River Basins, which focuses on exploring coupling allocation methods for initial water rights in river basins in response to these new requirements.
The forefront aspects of the content are mainly reflected in:
1. Constructing a river basin initial water rights allocation model constrained by the three red lines, aligning with the new requirements of national strategy;
2. Establishing a quantity-quality coupling allocation model for the provincial initial water rights allocation subsystem, improving the theoretical system of water rights management;
3. For the government reserved water allocation subsystem, creating a scale and structure optimization model aimed at water use safety, enhancing operability;
4. Developing a cyclic coupling model for the two subsystems, showcasing originality.
The innovative viewpoints of this work include:
1. Proposing that under the new system, the allocation of water rights must comprehensively consider four-dimensional constraints: water quantity, water quality, efficiency, and emergency control;
2. Based on the natural dual coupling of water quantity and water quality, proposing that a reward the good, punish the bad mechanism must be established in the provincial initial water rights allocation to couple and superimpose the influencing factors of water quality;
3. Based on the supply-demand coupling relationship of government reserved water, proposing that both the scale and structure optimization of government reserved water must be considered;
4. Proposing that to protect the water rights of different provinces in the entire river basin, downstream regions must also fulfill protective responsibilities.
The theoretical value of this work in researching new methods of river basin initial water rights allocation under the strictest water resources management system includes:
1. The step-by-step optimization of the provincial initial water rights quantity-quality coupling allocation provides a new research perspective and more accurate decision-making space for the initial water rights allocation;
2. The research on the river basin-level government reserved water allocation subsystem based on supply-demand coupling provides theoretical support for the accurate measurement of government reserved water;
3. The cyclic coupling model based on the criteria of coupling coordination ensures the coordinated development of the two subsystems, guaranteeing the scientific and complete nature of the water rights allocation theory.
(The author is a professor and doctoral supervisor at the Business School of Hohai University)
Supported by the General Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41271537)
Recipient of the Third Prize for Outstanding Achievements in Philosophy and Social Sciences at the 16th Awards
