Water 2015, 7, 3431-3465; doi:10.3390/w7073431 OPEN ACCESS water ISSN 2073-4441 www.mdpi.com/journal/water Article Assessing the Water Parallel Pricing System against Drought in China: A Study Based on a CGE Model with Multi-Provincial Irrigation Water Shuai Zhong 1,2,3,*, Lei Shen 3,*, Jinghua Sha 1,*, Mitsuru Okiyama 4, Suminori Tokunaga 5, Litao Liu 3 and Jingjing Yan 1 1 School of Humanities & Economic Management, China University of Geosciences, Beijing 100083, China; E-Mail:
[email protected] 2 Key Laboratory of Carrying Capacity Assessment for Resource and Environment, Ministry of Land and Resources, Beijing 100083, China 3 Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China; E-Mail:
[email protected] 4 Reitaku Institute of Political Economics and Social Studies, Reitaku University, 2-1-1, Hikarigaoka, Kashiwa, Chiba-ken 277-8686, Japan; E-Mail:
[email protected] 5 Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Reitaku University, 2-1-1, Hikarigaoka, Kashiwa, Chiba-ken 277-8686, Japan; E-Mail:
[email protected] * Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed; E-Mails:
[email protected] (S.Z.);
[email protected] (L.S.);
[email protected] (J.S.); Tel.: +86-10-6488-8073 (S.Z.); +86-10-6488-9005 (L.S.); +86-10-8232-3059 (J.S.); Fax: +86-10-8232-1783 (J.S.). Academic Editor: Markus Disse Received: 12 January 2015 / Accepted: 10 June 2015 / Published: 30 June 2015 Abstract: The reform of water management in China is still in progress, and the pricing of water resources is undertaken in parallel, with a divide between irrigation water and pipe water associated with different users: The supply of irrigation water is regulated by local government and that of pipe water is operated by the production sector of pipe water.