China possesses the fifth largest endowment of fresh water resources in the world, but byudper capita standards, it is strained at one-third of the world average. Water scarcity is particularlyudconcerning for the semi-arid North China plain, which receives only a fraction of the precipitationudSouth China receives. However, North China contains some of China’s most important city,udincluding the capital city, Beijing. To help meet increasing water demands, the Chinese CentraludGovernment authorized the expansion of the South-North Water Transfer Project (SNWTP).udPolicy-makers world-wide argue that the SNWTP’s costs exceed its benefits because it is onlyudshort-term solution for China’s long-term water scarcity problem and does not solve the difficultyudof high water demand for a limited freshwater supply. To test this theory, this project runs a costbenefitudanalysis on the SNWTP’s central route’s costs and benefits to Beijing over a 20 year testudperiod. The analysis shows that the benefits of the SNWTP exceed its costs. Because theudSNWTP’s central route has only been in use for one year, data is limited. For these reasons, thisudproject also shows that the SNWTP’s costs may exceed its benefits in the long-run, but additionaludresearch, particularly a field study along the SNWTP’s central route and in South China, is neededudto show the impacts of water diversion on these regions and also assess the energy footprint of thisudproject.
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