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Water Scarcity Impacts and Challenges of Water Governance in the Guanting Basin, North China. Evidence from Interviews with Local Stakeholders

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Integrated Water Resources Management: Concept, Research and Implementation

Abstract

The chapter presents results of an IWRM Project “Sustainable Water and Agricultural Land Use in the Guanting Watershed under Limited Water Availability” and focuses on institutional responses to water scarcity. We present results of interviews with stakeholders from the Guanting Basin on the perceptions of climate change and adaptation needs. The stakeholders interviewed were deeply aware of water shortages and their impacts in the study area. The examples of adaptation implemented on the ground mainly include supply driven measures. We observe weak coordination of water management across various government units and levels. Most of the interviewees believed that taking adaptation action was not within their competency, thinking that the central government or a different administrative unit would be responsible for such measures. The interviewees were aware of potentially promising concepts in water management such as compensation schemes, trade of water rights and weather insurance. Nevertheless, they recognized that these schemes would require larger institutional changes such as the introduction of water rights and fully recognized land property rights.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Chinese unit of land size, 1 hectare = 15 μ.

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Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge research funding acquired from the Sustainable Water and Agricultural Land Use in the Guanting Watershed under Limited Water Availability funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research and the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology and research funding acquired from the Natural Science Foundation of China for the WaterLab project (Project No. 71350110520). We are also grateful for comments and support of the research from Peggy Gräfe, Christiane Walter, Tobias Conrad, Christoph Menz, and other Guanting Project members.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Zhejiang University, School of Public Affaris, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China

    Ilona M. Otto & Rong Tan

  2. Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Potsdam, Germany

    Ilona M. Otto, Frank Wechsung & Xiaoxi Wang

  3. State Office for Environment, Nature Conservation and Geology Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Güstrow, Germany

    Jacob Möhring

Authors
  1. Ilona M. Otto
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  2. Frank Wechsung
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  3. Xiaoxi Wang
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  4. Jacob Möhring
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  5. Rong Tan
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rong Tan .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Helmholtz Centre Environmental Research, Magdeburg, Germany

    Dietrich Borchardt

  2. Center for Development Research - ZEF, Bonn, Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany

    Janos J. Bogardi

  3. Helmholtz Centre Environmental Research, Magdeburg, Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany

    Ralf B. Ibisch

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Otto, I.M., Wechsung, F., Wang, X., Möhring, J., Tan, R. (2016). Water Scarcity Impacts and Challenges of Water Governance in the Guanting Basin, North China. Evidence from Interviews with Local Stakeholders. In: Borchardt, D., Bogardi, J., Ibisch, R. (eds) Integrated Water Resources Management: Concept, Research and Implementation. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-25071-7_10

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