Cailing Hu
Title: Exploration and evaluation of effective integrated water management in the development of agricultural production systems: A case study in the Yellow River Basin in China Content: Because of the scarcity of water resources in its different regions, the Yellow River Basin has significant projects balancing water supply and demand for the northen regions of China. In the higher reaches, the agricultural production systems are expected to improve under the national strategic policy. However, between regions there exist different economic conditions and management requirements in the implementation of sustainable agricultural development. Yet the same water policies and management issues are applied for the whole river when logically different policies should be designed for the varying environmental conditions and socio-economic conditions of the river basin. This paper seeks a way to identify an effective integrated management of water resources in the context of sustainable development of agricultural production in the Yangtze River Basin and the relationships between the planning system and policy implementation in practice with respect to water use in the agricultural production systems at basin level in China. The paper also examines whether the significant principles within integrated water management and their influence on the consideration of institutions are sufficiently specific and appropriate to the chages in the agricultural production system and economic value of improvements to integrated water resources management at basin level. Keywords: integrated water management, development, agriculture Author's information Cailing Hu Oxford Institute for Sustainable Development, Department of Planning, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, OX3 0BP, UK. Email: cailinghu@hotmail.com cailinghu@brookes.ac.uk Tel: +441865 483448 Fax: +441865 483559