Ecological water, a new focus of China's water management.

Water set aside for environmental purposes is now the fastest-growing category of water use in China. Since 2000 this 'ecological water' (EcoW) has grown to make up 5 % of the total water allocation (around 30 billion m3 of water). This paper provides the first substantial review of the history, definition, and policy rationale for EcoW in China, and allows us to compare the Chinese program with elsewhere. As in most countries, the growth in EcoW is a response to the over-allocation of water, and a recognition of the broader values of aquatic systems. In contrast to other countries, most EcoW is still allocated to support human values more than natural values. The earliest, and most celebrated EcoW projects, were directed at reducing dust pollution from arid zone rivers affecting northern China. In other countries, most environmental water is clawed back from other users in a catchment (usually irrigators) and is then delivered as a quasi-natural flow regime from a dam. These sorts of environmental flows from dams do occur in China, represented by the EcoW diversion in the Heihe River Basin and the Yellow River Basin. By contrast, the largest EcoW programs do not replace existing uses. Instead, they augment flows through large interbasin transfers. The largest and fastest-growing EcoW program in China is on the North China Plain (NCP) based on excess water available from the South-North Water Transfer project. To illustrate the complexity of EcoW projects in China, we describe in more detail two case studies, the well-established arid-zone Heihe EcoW program and the newer Jin-Jin-Ji EcoW program on the NCP. Overall, ecological water allocation in China reflects a major development in water management in that country and a growing shift toward more holistic water management.

The Dynamics of Trust in the Shanghai Water Supply Regime.

Trust in natural resource managers and planners is recognized as a crucial component of the public's perception of environmental risks, including the risk of consuming water in cities. Although China is famous for its dubious water quality, public perception of the performance of water suppliers in China has scarcely been considered. Yet this is important, not least because improvements in urban water quality are most likely if the public perceives that there is a risk, which is a function of their levels of trust. We, therefore, examine the Shanghai public's trust in urban water authorities through analysis of the results from a face-to-face questionnaire that 5007 residents responded to. We find that although respondents show a moderate level of overall trust in water suppliers, they have less trust in the honesty and fairness of these organizations. In addition, we find that hukou status and education help explain the differences in people's trust in Shanghai's water authorities, and that these are more influential than factors such as gender and age. For water managers in Shanghai, this implies trust can be improved through a greater effort at public relations and increased transparency about decision making and levels of pollution.