Presenter
Dr. Haoliang Yu, Development Research Center of the Ministry of Water Resources of P. R. China
Co-author(s)
Dr. Xianghan Meng, Development Research Center of the Ministry of Water Resources of P. R. China
Sub-theme
6. Innovation for Water Governance and Management
Topic
6-7. Role of national and international law
Body
By using several methods, such as current situation investigation, theoretical induction, comparative analysis, and literature review, this paper summarizes the development process and achievement of China's watershed legislation, explains the major innovations and institutional contributions of China's watershed legislation, and analyzes the current deficiencies and future development direction. According to the study, based on the special attribute of water resources which has a watershed nature, watershed legislation is the most typical feature that distinguishes water legislation from other fields of legislation. Based on the complexity of water governance in China,, after years of development, a "two-body and two-wing" watershed legislation model has been formed, which includes comprehensive legislation on water affairs (body one), comprehensive legislation on single basin (body two), multi-watershed legislation on single affair (wing one), and single watershed legislation on single affair (wing two). It is unique in the world’s water legislation. In the process of watershed legislation, China has creatively formed a river basin management system with Chinese characteristics , which is a water resource management system that combines watershed management with administrative area management. At the river basin level, it has established a relatively complete system of water disaster prevention and control, water resource management, water ecological protection, water environment management, water project management and other systems, which has made China's contribution to the innovation of basin water management systems and mechanisms. The study points out that, in the current and coming period, it is necessary to further enrich and improve the China's watershed legislation and regulation system in accordance with the idea of "increment and urgency first, upgrading the quality of the stock". Plans of making the laws and regulations in advance can guide and standardize the river basin management activities in the future, and provide legal guarantee for river basin management and water resource management.