Realizing Sustainable Development of Yellow River Basin by Horizontal Eco-Compensation Based on Integrated Water Rights (IWRs) Transactions

Horizontal/interregional eco-compensation is an important policy to promote regional ecological and environmental cooperation and realize sustainable development for river basins. To solve these problems, a horizontal compensation framework based on integrated water rights (IWRs) transaction has been established. Taking the Yellow River basin as an example, the IWRs scheme realizes sustainable development, to a certain extent, improving the current issues of shortages, the low utilization efficiency of water resources, and weak water environmental carrying capacity. Evidence for this improvement includes: (1) an increased revenue of USD 244.71; (2) the water use efficiency in the middle and upper streams (Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia, Neimenggu, Shanxi) and the overall river basin being obviously improved (the maximum improvement value is 0.1273 m(3)/USD); (3) the overload situation of water resource carrying status being relieved in some subareas (Ningxia, Neimenggu, Henan, Shandong) and improved in the whole basin (from 0.6366 to 0.6124); (3) the water environmental carrying rate (COD and NH4+-N) of the middle and upper streams (Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia, Neimenggu, Shanxi) and the whole river basin obviously decreasing (with maximum decreasing values of 0.43 and 1.14, respectively).

Automated summary

Horizontal/interregional eco-compensation is an important policy for promoting regional ecological and environmental cooperation and achieving sustainable development in river basins. Using the Yellow River basin as an example, the integrated water rights (IWRs) scheme has effectively addressed issues such as water resource shortages, low utilization efficiency, and weak water environmental carrying capacity. The evidence shows improvements in increased revenue, improved water use efficiency, and decreased water environmental carrying rate.