Towards integrated groundwater management in China

This chapter is intended to provide an overview of groundwater policy development in China, analyze the integration dimensions in current policy, identify the missing pieces and major challenges of integration in groundwater management, and offer suggestions towards more integrated groundwater management. The average groundwater recharge in China is about 880 billion m3/year, 70 % of which is unevenly distributed in the south. Groundwater exploitation has doubled over the past three decades, and agriculture is the largest consumer at approximately 60 %. The exploitation of groundwater sustains a steady increase in agricultural production, but also brings about a multitude of eco-environmental problems. Since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, the focus of groundwater work has changed from investigating and exploiting to managing and protecting groundwater, and the viewpoint that groundwater is a single natural resource has gradually given way to that regarding groundwater as an environmental element with multiple functions. Integrated considerations of groundwater quantity, quality and its eco-environmental effects have been reflected in several programs aimed at prevention and control of groundwater contamination and land subsidence. Integration of surface water and groundwater by managed aquifer recharge and water transfer projects has been implemented. In the future, improvement of the legislation system, strengthening of institutional control, building-up of professional management teams, and increasing stakeholder involvement andpublic participation are all needed facets towards a more integrated groundwater management.