Study on Impact of East Route Project of the Southto-NorthWater Diversion in China

摘要

Due to uneven rainfall patterns, water scarcity is plaguing China especially inNorth China. The South-to-North Water Diversion (SNWD) project is the biggesthydraulic project ever designed worldwide. The East Route's (ER) mission is towithdraw water from Jiangdu at downstream section of Yangtze River. Under theSino-Italy cooperation framework in the field of environmental protection, theSWIMER project - the Sustainable Water Integrated Management of the East Routeof SNWD was implemented from 2004 to 2006. This paper briefly introduces thegeneral technical framework of the SWIMER project and focuses on the tasks ofROWAS model - Rules-based Objected-oriented Water Allocation SimulationModel. The core work of SWIMER is to develop an integrated water managementtool for the water supply area of the East Route by coupling water allocation model,socio-economic model and climate change model. Through iterate application of theROWAS model, various allocation scenarios of diverted water are provided to thesocio-economic model for optimization. The coupling approach is innovative andsuccessfully applied in the study. The major conclusions are: 1) the implementationof the SNWD East Route project will largely contribute to reduce water stress in thearea; 2) the water shortages will diminish and water savings will be realised from theexploitation of the groundwater resources; 3) the optimized allocation of the divertedwater resources is compatible with the structural and operational constrains of thewater diversion network under average and extreme drought conditions; and 4) anintegrated management of the East Route project needs a centralised instrumentcapable of controlling the diverted water resources, that could be built on the basis ofthe models developed under the SWIMER project.