Sun Feng，Dong Wu
（Yellow River Conservancy Commission, Zhengzhou, Henan, China, 450003 ）

Abstract: Water allocation in the Yellow River Basin, as one of key components in Integrated River Basin Management, is a breakthrough measure to address the water shortage and depleted river. The Yellow River is the mother river for China, water in the basin however is scare. The annual runoff of Yellow River is only about 2% of the China’s total, but it feeds 12% China’s population and 15% irrigation area, contributes 9% of China’s GDP, in addition to water supply beyond the basin. Besides, water resources in the basin are featured by large spatial and temporal changes. Water contribution varies in different section of the river. The runoff also shows large variability inter-annually and intra-annually. The history has witnessed three long-period droughts since 1969, each of them lasted around 10 years and annual runoff was lower than the average value by 10%-15%. Apart from that, the Yellow River also makes its name for dramatic soil erosion and the sediment-loaded flow. This makes it necessary to leave large amount of water as the reasonable channel flow for flushing sediment and riverine environment. Since 1970s, the water scarcity has been getting more severe because of climate change, huge water demand for the fast social-economic development and other human activities. Consequently, water was of significant shortage and little water available for the channel, leading to higher risks from floods. The Yellow River was depleted, and the Basin was in the difficult dilemma in balancing supplying water and keeping the healthy life of the river itself. In this context, water allocation was put forward by the State Council of China in 1998 and authorized the Yellow River Conservancy Commission to conduct Water Allocation in the Yellow River as a dramatic measure to respond to these unprecedented crisis and challenges.

The practice of water allocation in the Yellow River Basin is based on Yellow River Water Allocation Scheme, established and issued by the State Council of China in 1987, which sets a cap on abstraction at 37 billion m3 per year and quota for each province in case of average runoff of 58 million m3 in order to better balance available supply and actual demand and meanwhile reserve reasonable water for channel and riverine environment. When in dry years that annual runoff is smaller than the average value of 58 millions, the quota is cut off by percentage. Since the year of 1998 when water allocation started to conduct, the application region has been expended from only the main stream to the enclosure of main branches, and the basin-scaled water allocation has been getting conducted by approaches in administration, engineering works, scientific optimization, economic incentive, and legislation.

Through basin scaled water allocation over the past 10 years, the dry-up river courses has never happened and the river has kept running from the headwater to the delta continuously. The practice of water allocation has huge impacts not only on keeping the healthy life of the river self, but also the social economic development.

Regarding keeping healthy life of the river, through water allocation, the discharge in the river course was restored and larger flow improves the flow capacity to carry the sediment to the sea and avoid the siltation of the river. This reduces the flood risk. The base flow in the river course is larger and water quality is improved. Groundwater is also recharged. Through practice of artificial flood under water allocation system, the ever dry-up floodplain is fed by water again, and the wetlands within the channel are restored, which also contributes to flood security. For the wetlands in the delta, the continuous fresh water supply has prevented the delta ecological environment from further deterioration, which was destroyed by the river running dry, and have regained their previous healthy status. The wetlands are prevented from further shrink and biodiversity from extinction. The habitat of rare animals and birds are protected and the wetlands have regained their natural status.

Water allocation also contributes dramatically to the social-economic development. The water use efficiency is improved dramatically, particularly in the irrigation districts through water pricing and water market, and water consumption falls down significantly. The equality of water use between the upstream and downstream is improved. The practice of water allocation also stimulates water demand study and management, as a result, the conflict between water supply and water demand is greatly mitigated. Through water pricing and water market, the economic measures of water allocation system, water is transfer from the lower value sector to the higher value sector, improving GDP by 30.9 billion RMB per year.

Water allocation, working along with sediment management, water and sediment regulation, environmental flow, forms a crucial measure in integrated Yellow River basin management, contributing the healthy life of the river.

Key words: Yellow River, integrated river basin management, healthy life of the river, water allocation, water scarcity, environmental flow, water efficiency, water saving, delta, wetlands