Eco-environmental benefit assessment of China's South-North Water Transfer Scheme – the middle route project

Article type: Research Article

Authors: DUAN, Guang-ming | ZHAO, Jing-zhu | LIU, Guo-hua | KE, Bing | XIAO, Han | WU, Gang | DENG, Hong-bing

Affiliations: Key Laboratory of System Ecology, Research Centre for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China

Note: [] Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract: This paper assess the eco-environmental benefits that may come from the middle route project of China's South-North Water Transfer Scheme (SNWT) with principles and methods of eco-economics and planning reports of SNWT's middle route project. Some benefits were calculated in monetary units. To make sure that the results can be comparable with normal monetary indices, concrete assessment objects and the parameters are prudently selected according to the major characteristics of the project and its water import region. Primary assessment revealed that in different project construction stages, the benefit could be more than 13.07 billion RMB Yuan in 2010 and 19.79 billion RMB Yuan in 2030, respectively. The monetary value tends to increase with social-economic development. To realize these potential benefits, however, calls for more endeavors.

Keywords: China's South-North Water Transfer Scheme (SNWT), the middle route project of South-North Water Transfer (MRPSNWT), assessment, ecosystem services, monetary indices

Journal: Journal of Environmental Sciences, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 308-315, 2004