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Equitable Utilisation and Effective Protection of Sharing Transboundary Water Resources in international Rivers of Western

He, Daming (Asian International River Centre, University, Kunming, 650091; E-mail:[email protected]) Liu, Xiujuan (Australian Resource Center, Sydney University, Sydney, Australia)

Abstract: Western China includes 12 provincial divisions (the 7 provinces of Sichuan, , Yunnan, Shangxi, Gansu, Qinghai and; 5 autonomous regions of Tibet, Ningxia, Xinjiang , Inner Mongolia and ; and one city of Chongqing), which comprise 71.4% of the national land area, 28.5% of the national population and produce 17.5% of the national GDP in China. There are 17 countries that have riparian relationships with wester n China, most of which are water -short countries. All are listed by UN ESCAP as countries with potential water crisis. The co-operative development and coordinated management of international rivers in western China is an important step toward the implementation of the national Great Western Development program. Taking into account of the national strategy and object hierarchy, as well as the development demand of the western region, it is necessary to pursue the multi-disciplinary study of the equitable allocation, utilisation, and eco-environment protection of transboundary water resource in the region. Such efforts will undoubtedly provide scientific evidence and support for the decision-making of the environmental protection and ecological construction and management in the western region, the enforcement of the sub-regional economic co-operation, mitigation of trans-boundary conflicts, and enhancing bio-diversity conservation.

1. Introduction Recently, some important international institutions, like the World Bank (WB) and the Asian Development Bank, have pointed out that there will exist in water crises, water conflicts, and even water wars in the 21th century. The equitable utilization and co-ordinated management of the shared freshwater resources in international watercourses (sharing rivers, lakes, and underground water layers) were particularly emphasised and are turning out to be the international hotpoint and staggering issues for the resolution of regional conflict. Countries such as Egypt and Israel have listed the cross-border freshwater resource as the most urgent strategic resource and the most important protection target for the military forces.

Currently there are over 261 international rivers and approximately 300 underground water-bearing stratums and underground reservoirs shared by various countries, which comprise of 50% of the earth’s land area and almost 50% of the world’s population, sharing almost 50% of the global river runoff. Since the 1990s, the study on international rivers has become even more important. On March 19-21, 1998, more than 1000 ministers and experts from over 80 countries gathered in Paris to discuss the strategic themes on the management and protection of global freshwater resources, and water resources in international rivers was one of the three major themes discussed. On March 21-22, 2000, water management ministers from over 80 countries took part in the ministerial meeting of Water Security in the 21st Century, in which the integrated water resources management, the equitable utilisation of shared 中国科技论文在线 http://www.paper.edu.cn water resources in trans-boundary international rivers and national sovereignty were major themes, and it was proposed that till 2005 a co-operative mechanism be established and strengthened in the riparian countries sharing the major international rivers. Furthermore, by 2015, an agreement on water-sharing be signed. Tow key issues were raised for consideration: one is how to develop trans-boundary river basins under the precondition of respecting sovereignty, and the other is how to enforce pubic participation in the making and implementation of policies of trans-boundary river basins at the international level.

Under the tendency of sustainable development in the new century, to realise th equitable utilisation of trans-boundary water resources and sustainable maintenance of trans-boundary eco-environment has become the key factors in ecosystem preservation of international water courses and the integrated and co-ordinated development of social, economic and environmental systems with catchment as the basic unit. It has become the new action goal for the efforts to deal with water shortage, population explosion, water pollution and to protect bio-diversity, as well as the efforts to ensure food, water and ecological security, to eliminate regional conflict, to enforce regional stability and the multi-polarisation of the global political economic situation. It has become the new focus of the multi-disciplinary study including geography sciences. In China as a whole, such effort remains to be in the initial stage.

In the Schematic Report of the Tenth Five-Year-Plan(FYP) of national social economic Development, China’s Premier Zhu Rongji stated that the emphasis of the ecological construction of the Great Western Development is “to focus on the protection, conservation and development of water resources, to strengthen planning and reasonable allocation, and to manage to increase the efficiency of water utilisation”. The study on equitable utilisation of water resources in the international rivers in western China and ecological preservation is not only the key to the socio-economic development and ecological construction of the western China, but also has strategic importance, obvious comprehensive benefit and wide practical prospects to the national sustainable development, the regional co-operation and friendly relationship between China and West Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia, and further the water and ecological security of the whole Asia.

2. International challenges

Among all the continents, the per capita GDP of Asia is the lowest. Asia is also one continent that possesses the most international rivers, with 65% of its land area falling into the category of international river basins.1 In this context, the equitable utilisation, allocation of international river water resources and the preservation of its ecological environment should be put more attention to. In the past 50 years(ADB, 2000), due to the increasing population, the average per capita usable water resources have decreased by 70% in South Asia and Middle Asia, by 60% in North Asia and 55% in Southeast Asia. Over 30% of water resources in 8 countries in these regions comes from the international rivers, they are Bangladesh, Cambodia, Kazakstan, Pakistan, Tajikhstan, Thailand, Uzbekhstan and Vietnam. Among them, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Uzbekhstan, and Vietnam have more than 65% of their water resources with foreign sources. Taking into account of the rapid population increase and socio -economic

1 This number doesn’t take into account the new international rivers due to the separation of the former USSR. 中国科技论文在线 http://www.paper.edu.cn development, the decrease of usable water resources is bound to deteriorate, which leads to the future world water issues.

The downstream countries related to the western China will surely be concerned about the changes of the water resource system and its ecological environment in the international rivers in the west. For example, on December 24, 2000, Indian Foreign Minister claimed that water and energy issues are becoming key issues of the foreign policies in India. He said that due to the climatic changes, in the last two years the Himalayan glacier from which major rivers in India originate has lowered by about 30m. If the tendency continues, serious water disaster will dawn these rivers. He also estimated that water will become the most important global issue. The Foreign Affairs Ministry of Japan also sees the international water issue as an important part of its foreign diplomatic policy.

Now, the average per capita water resource is 2300m³ in China. It is estimated that the population will increase to 1.6 billion in 2030, and the average per capita water resource will decrease to 1760m³, which indicates that China becomes a nation with a water stress. Among the 30 provinces, autonomous regions and cities, the top five with the richest per capita water resource are all located in the western part of China: Tibet, with a per capita water resource of 206 892m³, Qinghai 13 978m³, Yunnan 5953m³, Xinjiang 5774m ³, and Guangxi 4415m³. Most of these regions are located in the upper reaches or sources of major rivers, and are the strategic base for water security of the sustainable development of China and the key regions for ecological security. If the is seen as an international river, then most areas of these regions fall within the international river basins except Qinghai.

Of the 15 major international rivers, 11 are located in the western part of China, which makes the western China the “Water Tower” of Asia. In total, an amount of 395 billion m³ of water flows out of the China West each year, accounting for about 90% of the total water amount flowing out of China. Most of the 17 riparian countries are listed as potential water stress countries except Laos and Burma. In particular, the neighbouring Afghanistan, India, Iran, Korea and Pakistan, which are all downstream countries compared with China, were listed as highly potential water stress countries. In this vein, the external conditions of water development in the international rivers in the Western China are not favourable at all, with potential high water competition among riparian countries. These water counterparts have constant concerns about water development in China, particularly on the allocation of water resources and water quality change. What is more important is that the water development in the downstream countries is at a much higher stage and these countries are highly sensitive to the upstream water development activities. According to the international water laws, often the priority is to guarantee the current water utilisation, which is unfavourable to the further development of upper reaches. Such a situation is most outstanding in the allocation and utilisation of water resources in the Nile River Basin. In this sense, China will also face such an unfavourable situation in the future.

The western China is located in the upper reaches of the international rivers. Its efforts to the development of water resources and harnessing of ecological environment will have obvious comprehensive implications to the downstream countries and will have benefit compensation. For instance, according to the modelling to 40 years runoff data and the cascade dam planning operation 中国科技论文在线 http://www.paper.edu.cn data, among the eight cascade dams on the Lancang (the Upper Mekong), the increased dry season flow in the lower Lancang by Xiaowan and Nuozhadu dams only reaches more than 660m³/s in a moderate-flow year, over 860m³/s in a low-flow year, and about 1280m³/s in an extra-low-flow year, which will have substantial benefit to the flood control, irrigation, navigation and saline water intrusion mitigation in the lower Mekong. According to the international cases, this part of the benefit should be seen as compensation benefit and be requested by the upper reaches. Similar issues arise also in the various action plans of international navigation development of Irrawaddy River, the hydropower cascade development in mainstream Red River, related steep sloping land reforestation and primary forest preservation.

There are many glaciers and snow mountains in the western international river regions. In the Yaluzangbu-Brahmaputra, Irravaddy, Nu-Salween, and upper Lancang-Mekong there are more than 40 snow mountains higher than 6000m, the glacier water deposit reaches 100 billion m³, of which the accumulation and melting to a large extent defines the development and utilisation of water resources and the maintenance of the riverine environment in the region. Related changes are not only the result of human activities such as the large scale hydro cascades, interbasin water diversion, decreasing forest cover, expanding cultivated land and barren land, but also affected by the evolution of Asian monsoon related to the global climatic change, “land ice” effects (cold temperature and melting) and “warm pond” effects (the temperature changes of the sea surface). Therefore, it is necessary to see the ocean- atmosphere-land-water system as an integral system in analysing the evolution mechanism and related hydrological and water resource effects. In particular, due to the water and air pollution resulting from the global environmental crisis, throughout the world, places in the world where unpolluted or lightly- polluted “clean” water are very rare. In Asia, most of such spots are located in the western China where the international rivers concentrate. In this sense, the protection of the water source and its environment have not only national but also global significance.

Till the end of the 1980s, a little study on international rivers had been done indeed in China. However, with China’s opening and reform process to outside, the study started to gain at a higher status in the early 1990s. More emphasis has been put into the development of international rivers by the government. For example, the international cooperation on the Tumen, and the Lancang-Mekong were enforced by the state government.

Hereafter, the National Natural Science Foundation Commission (NSFC), the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Ministry of Water Resources supported some projects on some important international rivers, which provided significant scientific evidence for related national and local governments to develop and manage these rivers. Nevertheless, the current efforts are far from enough, taking into account of the globalisation implications after the entrance into WTO. In the regions of international rivers, there are still no sufficient research achievements, development and management projects and measures that are in pace with the international practices, laws and regulations, for the purpose of coping with the competitive utilisation of, co-operative management of and trans-border conflicts over the trans-boundary resources and environment. For example, currently China is lack of the comprehensive, systematic and authorised research and information centre of international rivers, as well as sustained research projects. In particular, strong enough emphasis has been put neither on the 中国科技论文在线 http://www.paper.edu.cn equitable utilisation, allocation and co-operative management of the shared trans-boundary water resources, nor on the preservation of trans-boundary ecological systems.

There are also misunderstandings of many concepts. In the 2000 annual Conference of the National Association of Science and Technology held in Xi’an, when discussing the water allocation projects of the international rivers in Xinjiang, one expert understood “equitable” allocation as “half by half”, which will force China to lose the rights of large amount of precious water. If this formula were used in the allocation of water in all the international rivers, China would lose more than 200 billion m³ of water each year.

3. Existing problems

There is great differentiation on the water resource and environment of international river basins in West China. These rivers can be divided into two groups.

3.1 North-western international river area The major features of the international rivers in this area include the following. Firstly, they have large areas of hinterland, the circulation of water is predominantly a vertical cycle, the annual evaporation is equal to the annual precipitation, runoff formation area and runoff consumption area are separated, the hydrological cycle is complicated on both medium and small scales. As to the composition of runoff recharge, snow and ice recharge plays an important role, which is closely related to the climatic changes. On small scale regions, the large scale global climatic change has evident implications. As a whole, these rivers are working as an interface actions of landscape becoming of glacier-river-lake-oasis-desert that is linked by both surface and underground water courses as the global changes.

This area is the largest arid area in China. Large amount of its water resource originates from beyond the national boundary. For example, 60.8% of the total water resource in Aksu River is contributed by Kirghistan.

3.2 South-western international river area South-western international rivers include the Yaluzangbu-Brahmaputra, Irrawaddy, Nu-Salween, Lancang-Mekong, Yuan-Red River, which are all famous international rivers in Asian and even in the world, and all are nearly developing along the north-south way. The region covers 29 latitudes and 13 longitude, with a total area of 850 000 km², accounting for 1/6 of the Western China and 1/12 of the national total area. This region is the key area of the state hydropower base, the great international passage (including navigation, the pan-Asian highway and railway in the future), bio-resource development, sub-regional economic co-operation and state primary forest preservation, which will trigger rapid changes in the water resource and ecological system of the international rivers, sometimes even trigger mutation, which might affect the competition over the resources and the degradation of the ecosystem and pollution treatment. However, the national policies on western ecological construction are not fully considered in these international river areas. For example, the current compensation policy for steep slope cultivation has not been implemented in upstream area of the Lancang, the Nu and the 中国科技论文在线 http://www.paper.edu.cn

Irrawaddy, which all develop in the same region. In fact, this has negative impact on the incentive for the local governments and peasants to harness the ecological environment.

In this area, an approximate 393 billion m³ of run-off flows out of the national boundary each year, accounting for 96% of the total amount flowing out of the whole country, which is related to ten neighbouring riparian countries and around 1.5 billion population(except China). As a result of the high altitude, steep slopes, scarce land resources and relatively low level of industrialisation and urbanisation, the amount of water utilised is very limited. At present less than 1% of the total water resources is utilised. In the context of global water crisis and the serious national water shortage, water in this area will surely become the national and regional strategic resource in the new century.

The highest point is 8848m above the sea level, the lowest point is 76.4m in the international rivers of Southwest China. The high mountain and deep valley landscape with the greatest height difference on the earth is affected by the most complicated interactions of ocean, continent, atmosphere and mountain residents activities and thus acquires unique complexity, specification, diversity and fragility in its working mechanism and evolution process. By comparing the two different runoff series of 1956-79 and 1956- 92 in Yunnan Province, it is found that, first, under the effect of southwest monsoon, surface temperature variation of the Indian Ocean and the overyear climatic variation and global warming, many of the rivers recharged by snow and ice melting water have a growing mean annual runoff, such as the Irrawaddy, the Nu and the Lancang. In addition, the more western the location is, the larger the increment. The runoff increment of the Irrawaddy, for example, is four times higher than that of its eastern counterpart, the Lancang. Second, due to the effect of southeast monsoon, the Red River and the Pearl River systems, which both have none component of snow and ice melting recharge, have decreasing mean annual runoff. The more eastern the location is, the greater the decrement. For instance, the decrements from west to east are: 4.7% in Lixian River, 5.1% in , 5.4% in Panlong river, 5.9% in , and 7.6% in Beipan river.

The potential hydropower resource of this area is 256 740MW, accounting for 37.9% of the national total. It has been the key national hydropower base since the eighth FYP. In the recent strategies of Great West China Development, this area plays a role of the national transferring the western power to the east and exporting electricity out of Yunnan. For instance, on the mainstream Lancang, the Manwan Dam with an installed capacity of 1500 MW was built in 1996; the Dachaoshan Dam with a capacity of 1350 MW will be completed this year; the Xiaowan Dam with a capacity of 4200 MW to be bult in late 2001; the Jinghong Dam with a capacity of 1500 MW to be built in 2006; and the Nuozhadu Dam with a capacity of 5500 MW will be built in 2005. Nevertheless, due to the high mountain and deep gorge, the hydropower projects are facing serious and constant threats from the local heavy soil erosion and landslides. The Manwan project, for example, had to be altered in the later stage of construction due to the unexpected landslide in the dammed area, which led to high economic cost. After the dam was completed, as a result of the inappropriate resettlement which worsened soil and water loss, in the first three years of operation, the average sand content was much higher than the planned standard, and the silting rate has reached the fifth year of designed standard, which largely reduces the economic life of the reservoir. In a field investigation pursued in early April, 2001, it was found that around 1000 residents, which accounts for 1/3 of the total original resettlement size, need further resettlement due to 中国科技论文在线 http://www.paper.edu.cn the many large scale landslides and debris flow triggered by the storage and release of water, as well as the reclamation of slope lands.

Originating from the cold plateau, high mountains and deep gorges, these international rivers used to have rather poor transportation and research capacities, which contribute to the relatively weak research capabilities, even there are some gap areas in scientific research. For example, the source of the Red River hasn’t been confirmed yet; and there is almost nothing done in the upland of the Irrawaddy and the Chinese part of the Sino-Burma border area with a land of 18 000 km². Even on the topic of the Lancang, though it has become the hot point of national and world academic circle, the study of the upstream regions is still weak, and there exists the problem of the lack of a unified information system, which hinders the diplomatic policy making and participation in the sub-regional co-operation.

Furthermore, there is the problem of major national boundary definition and serious loss of national territory. For example, in the international river area within Yunnan Province, serious territorial loss arises each year due to river bank erosion in some 50 tributaries and several mainstream rivers.

The above mentioned aspects are closely elated with a series of significant scientific, fundamental, and strategic issues, as well as issues contributing to gap-bridging and research capacity building.

4 Implications of sustainable development of international rivers

The major tendency of the equitable utilisation and sustainable development of the shared water resource in international rivers are as follows:

4.1 From single objective to multi-objective development With the awareness of the conceptions of international rivers, international river basins, and international water course systems, the development of shared water resources is moving away from the previous single objective exploitation to the multi objective development including economic, social and ecological objects, from short-term benefits to long-term, sustainable development goals. Special attention is paid to the reasonable allocation, equitable utilisation of the resource, and the unified utilisation of surface and underground water, with the ultimate goal of the comprehensive benefit and sustainable development. Such a tendency is shown in the 10th FYP, in which it is stressed that the management and development of water resources should be based on the whole river basin.

4.2 The allocation model of water resources in the international river basins is moving toward the integrated basin allocation In this model an international watercourse is seen as an integrator. Consequently water allocation should be based on such an integrated concept. The main feature of the model is that the top priority is given to the satisfaction of the biological demand and the living demand of human and livestock within the basin. This is followed by the estimation of the amount of usable water for economic benefit consideration, which is to be divided among the riparian countries according to their individual contribution and water using scale based on the water rights of each country and the equitable utilisation of international rivers. 中国科技论文在线 http://www.paper.edu.cn

In addition, the way of co-operation is turning from the exploitation of individual countries to the participation and unified exploitation of multi countries with the target of integrated development. In the process, the significance of the integrated exploitation and management of the inter-boundary water resources, and the dialogue among different stakeholders is encouraged, in order to force a wider consensus. It seems that such an allocation mode can be promoted in the international rivers in western China, though due to the lack of relevant mechanisms to apply international water laws and management, for the time being in most cases the comprehensive allocation model is employed.

In the comprehensive utilisation of the international rivers, the principle of equitable utilisation and avoidance of significant harms. On the one hand, the development of the upstream countries should take into account the downstream implications; on the other hand, however, downstream countries should recognise the fact that their upstream counterparts have the rights to use water reasonably, in the meantime, downstream countries ought to compensate for part of the benefits from water and other related actions (e.g. environmental protection) of the upstream countries. Most of the international rivers in western China are located at the source or upstream region, which makes the studies even more significant.

When the management agent composed of the representatives from various riparian countries is working on a conflict resolution agreement according to the international laws and international practices, it is often that more powerful international institutions such as the UN, the WB etc. to participate and co- ordinate, and that a large number of academic and non-governmental organisations, private investors and community organisations to participate. In terms of the management framework, the focus is transferring from technical management to human resource management, as well as internet information, GIS and remote sensing technology, in order to enforce the communication and processing of information, to enforce the consensus among stakeholders and to establish a reliable foundation for decision-making.

As to the global tendency, in the field of transboundary water resources and related ecological environment, the challenging issue to be dealt with are as follows: · the uncertain hydrologic and water resource changes related with the global climatic change, and the implication of the utilisation, allocation and management of water resources in the international rivers; · laws and rules, policies, approaches and modes of the co-operative development and co-ordinated management of international rivers; · qualitative assessment of the comprehensive function and value of international water courses, their ecological water demand and usable water quantity; the defining, selection and implementation of the international water allocation modes under different water course systems and different utilisation and management levels, including the establishment of the matching regulation framework, management mechanisms and monitoring systems. · assessment and appraisal the impact of upstream development on the downstream users and related mechanisms and measures for compensation, the impact of inter-basin water diversion and inter- boundary water pollution in particular, by employing the modern approaches of “sharing international water courses” and “every country is a downstream country”, as well as the major international water pollution principle of “equitable and reasonable utilisation”, “information sharing”, “priori 中国科技论文在线 http://www.paper.edu.cn

notice” etc. including the new principles such as users pay, polluters pay and beneficiaries compensate. · definition and multi-value assessment of international water right, study on the trading mechanism of water right, the establishment of the integral multi-objective index system for the equitable water utilisation, allocation and sustainable maintenance, and the assigning of the object priority weighting order, as well as the making and implementation of the co-ordinating projects; · the competitive utilisation of water, conflict resolution and regional water security enforcement in water short area; · conservation of trans-boundary hydro bio-diversity, monitoring and harnessing of the trans-boundary water pollution; · integrated development model of international river basins focusing on the optimistic and equitable utilisation of land and water resources, co-ordinated development of resource base, ecological environment and socio-economic systems, and the enforcement of the equitable and co-ordinated development among different reaches of the river and among different countries within the river basin, toward the ultimate goal of sustainable development of the whole river basin; · sovereignty definition and territorial loss in international river basins; · multi-source data collection and information management in the western China by employing the 3s (i.e. RS, GIS and GPS) technology, in order to compensate for inadequate information on this area and to pursue the dynamic monitor of the trans-boundary resource and environment, as well as to support the development and management of the river basin and enhance the scientific and democratic process of the decision-making process, and to enforce the multi-layer participation and co-operation.

5 Identification of major research topics and key questions

To enhance the equitable utilisation and sustainable development of the trans-boundary water resources of the international rivers, currently there are the following major research topics in the Great West China Development.

· Features, temporal and spatial structures, current status and problems of the water resource and its environment of the international rivers; · Uncertain changes of the hydrological and water resource system and the evolution of the ecological landscape triggered by the climatic changes in different regions in western China, and the analysis, assessment and forecast on the comprehensive implications of the utilisation, allocation and management of trans-boundary water resources; · Master plan of the utilisation of water resource in western international rivers, the equitable allocation models and sustainable development study, including the exploitation and protection of water resource in the western international rivers, its strategic status, co-operation approaches, management models and potential problems in the sub-regional co-operation with the West Asia, South Asia and SE Asia, as well as analysis on the related preventive measures and strategies; · Definition of both domestic water rights (national vs. local, and local vs. local) and international water rights (China vs. other riparian countries), international river laws, international water laws and related policy studies, as well as analysis on the co-ordination and conflict resolution between these 中国科技论文在线 http://www.paper.edu.cn

regulations and the national water laws and regional environmental protection legal framework, water rights trading and protection measures; · Comprehensive impacts of sedimentation variation and soil erosion on water projects, water course protection and navigation development, as well as the environmental effects of large scale hydropower cascade; · Construction of the multi-source information database and management information system.

Key issues to be dealt with in the study of international rivers are:

· Evolution mechanism of the mega-system of ocean-continent-air-water, the comprehensive effects of the hydro and water resource system at different scales, and the driving factors, modes and the coupling relations of the regular evolution of the temporal and spatial variation of the runoffs; · Impact of the fragile eco-environment of the high mountains and deep gorges on the national effort to turn the western region as hydropower and energy base, environmental impacts of the large scale hydropower cascades; · Impact of climatic, hydrological and water resource variations to the water resource allocation, utilisation, protection and the ecological landscape variation; · Allocation model of water resources in international rivers taking into account of the different types and locations of international water courses, and various development and management conditions; definition of the multi-right water resource and its priority weighting order, as well as the mechanism of water rights trade and protective measures; · definition of the right for multi-right water resources, mechanism of water rights trade and market, equitable utilisation, allocation and protection of water resources, as well as the definition of the integrated multi-objective index system, priority weighting order and co-ordination projects.

It is worth mentioning that quantitative and qualitative approaches should be integrated, besides the various methods such as field investigation, scenario analysis, indoor analysis and on-spot monitoring. In addition, a multi-disciplinary method should be employed by cross-applying the theories and approaches of geography, biology, hydrology and water sciences, system and information sciences, digital and model simulation technologies. Moreover, advance technologies (such as RS, GIS, and GPS) are recommended in spatial analysis, multi-source date in remote and bordering regions is to be collected, as well as the database construction and related website development; and finally, in applying the theories and practices of multi-objective decision-making, multi-objective simulation and analysing model, computer technology, the international experiences and lessons should be learned in the integrated multi- objective development and co-ordinated management of the trans-boundary water resources.

6 Conclusion

The cooperative management and development of the international rivers in western China is a significant step in the Great West China Development. The equitable allocation, utilisation and protection of the trans-boundary water resources is not only the key to the sustainable development of the West China but also a focal factor in the sustainable water utilisation, food security, drinking water security and ecological security of China and the 17 neighbouring riparian countries. The West China is a region 中国科技论文在线 http://www.paper.edu.cn where many international rivers are located, its natural, socio-economic conditions are complex, and the scientific research base is rather weak. In this sense, it is vital to fully refer to the existing research achievements, and to establish a multi-disciplinary task force which not only contributes to the capacity building but also helps to avoid the current repetitive work by different disciplines and genuinely realise information sharing.

It is suggested that different study scales and focuses should be identified to guarantee initiative achievements with limited investment. To list a few, the region of the Lancang hydropower cascade can be the focal area for the study of the impact of specific environment on certain project construction; the Northwestern International River Area can be identified as the key area for the study of the equitable allocation, sustainable development and international water rights; the Yuan-Red River Basin can be defined as a key area for the study on the institutional construction in terms of the co-operative utilisation and co-ordinated management of water resources in international rivers; while the study on the global climatic change, mechanism and coupling mode of hydrologic cycle and the ecological landscape change can be pursued in two different landscape units of the northwestern inland arid area and southwestern high mountain deep gorges area. Likewise, the focus area of basic information establishment and macro, comprehensive study is the role that the river basins of the Yaluzangbu, the Irrawaddy and the Nu, as well as the upper Lancang.

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