Water Resource Sustainable Management: An Important Aspect of Sustainable Urbanization in China

摘要

With the rapid economic growth, China has been witnessing a dramatic growth of urbanization since 1978, and its urbanization level increased from 17.9% in 1978 to 45.7% in 2008. However, China's rapid urbanization has resulted in many resource and environmental problems, one of which is water crises including water shortage, water pollution and water wastage. These three problems are impeding the sustainable and healthy progress of urbanization. Therefore, freshwater availability is an element of growing importance in sustainable China's urban development. By analyzing the present situations of water resources crises in China's urban, the paper proposed the five strategies for the water resource sustainable management. They are using inclining block tariffs to control urban users' water demand, using water saving products certification to control industrial products' water use; introducing market mechanism to wastewater treatment industry, providing specific foundation to support non-traditional water resource exploration and making policy to plan water use and to conserve urban fresh water resource.