Search Results (32)

Transboundary water governance faces persistent challenges due to mismatches between natural hydrological boundaries and political administrative boundaries. This study examines the evolution and mechanisms of intergovernmental cooperation in the Taihu Basin (1987–2024), addressing how cooperation forms, evolves, and sustains amid conflicting priorities. Using a mixed-methods approach, we analyzed 106 policy documents, government reports, and stakeholder interviews to map governance stages, cooperation networks, and policy themes. Results reveal three phases in transboundary water governance in Taihu Basin: (1) a centralized hierarchy (1987–2007) dominated by vertical mandates; (2) a hybrid stage (2008–2018) with rising horizontal cooperation driven by crisis responses like the 2007 cyanobacteria outbreak; and (3) a networked stage (2019–2024) integrating diagonal mechanisms that bridged hierarchical gaps and scaled grassroots innovations. Key findings show diagonal relations reduced bureaucratic delays, enabling bottom-up practices like joint river chief systems to become regional policies. While grounded in the Taihu Basin context, this study provides a compelling case of institutional coupling that may inform governance in other transboundary basins, where vertical authority, horizontal reciprocity, and diagonal experimentation coexist dynamically. This study offers a model for balancing administrative fragmentation and ecological integrity, emphasizing adaptive networks over rigid hierarchies. These insights provide a feasible solution approach for addressing transboundary water resource governance challenges in similar institutional environments. Full article

The river chief system (RCS) has been progressively integrated into rural river governance, resulting in notable improvements in river environments. However, the governance involves multiple stakeholders with conflicting interests and challenges, including low efficiency in collaborative governance. Based on evolutionary game theory, this paper explores the strategy evolution mechanism of multiple stakeholders in rural river governance under the RCS. A four-party evolutionary game model is constructed, involving the government, rural river chiefs, functional organizations, and villagers. By employing phase diagrams, Jacobian matrices, and Lyapunov’s first method, we investigate the evolutionary process of the four-party game and analyze its asymptotic stability. The study identifies the following two evolutionary stable strategies: lenient supervision, no patrol, governance, and participation and lenient supervision, no patrol, governance, and non-participation. Then, numerical simulation analysis is conducted using MATLAB 2024b to validate the scientific rigor and effectiveness of the evolutionary game model and analyze the impact of key parameters’ changes on the strategy choices of each stakeholder. The findings provide guidance for improving the efficiency of multi-stakeholder collaboration in rural river governance and the smooth implementation of the RCS in rural areas. Full article

In order to cope with the extremely difficult challenges of water pollution control, China has widely implemented the river chief system. The water quality monitoring of surface water environment, as a solid defense line to safeguard human health and ecosystem balance, is of great importance in the river chief system. As a well-known island county in China, Yuhuan City holds even more precious water resources. Leveraging machine learning technology to develop water quality prediction models is of great significance for enhancing the monitoring and evaluation of surface water environment quality. This case study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of six machine learning models in predicting water quality index (CWQI) and uses SHAP (Shapley Additive exPlans) as an interpretability analysis method to deeply analyze the contribution of each variable to the model’s prediction results. The research results show that all models exhibited good performance in predicting CWQI, and as the number of significantly correlated variables in the input variables increased, the prediction accuracy of the models also showed a gradual improvement trend. Under the optimal input variable combination, the Extreme Gradient Boosting model demonstrated the best prediction performance, with a root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.7081, a mean absolute error (MAE) of 0.4702, and an adjusted coefficient of determination (Adj.R²) of 0.6400. Through SHAP analysis, we found that the concentrations of TP (total phosphorus), NH3-N (ammonia nitrogen), and CODCr (chemical oxygen demand) have a significant impact on the prediction of CWQI in Yuhuan City. The implementation of the river chief system not only enhances the pertinence and effectiveness of water quality management, but also provides richer and more accurate data support for machine learning models, further improving the accuracy and reliability of water quality prediction models. Full article

This paper takes the implementation of the River Chief System (RCS) as a case study representing government-led environmental governance policies. Based on the sample of 11,654 observations of Chinese A-share-listed companies spanning the years 2009 to 2021, it empirically examines the effect of the RCS on corporate Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance and the macro- and micro-mechanisms utilizing a staggered Difference-in-Differences (DID) model, controlling for companies’ financial and organizational structure characteristic variables, cities’ economic characteristic variables, and firm-year two-way fixed effects. The results indicate that the implementation of the RCS significantly enhances corporate ESG performance, a conclusion supported by various robustness checks such as the parallel trend test and placebo test. Further investigation reveals that implementing the RCS, at the micro level, boosts corporate green technology innovation, increases environmental protection investment, and, at the macro level, heightens public environmental attention, thus improving corporate ESG performance. Heterogeneity analysis finds that the RCS has a more pronounced impact on enhancing ESG performance for enterprises in central and western regions of China, state-owned enterprises, enterprises with political connections, and enterprises in mature and declining stages. These research findings of this paper provide valuable insights for local governments seeking to enhance the RCS, enrich environmental governance frameworks, and facilitate corporate green transformation. Full article

The complexity of watershed pollution governance necessitates the involvement of multiple stakeholders, with increasing emphasis on public participation. In response, China introduced the river chief system and gradually established civilian river chiefs and environmental supervisors as channels for public engagement. However, questions remain about how to effectively and sustainably engage the public while addressing watershed pollution. To explore this, we employed an action research approach, focusing on a case from Guiyang, which pioneered the “Dual River Chief System” and introduced civilian environmental supervisors, significantly mobilizing public involvement and controlling pollution. By analyzing the selection background, criteria, responsibilities, training, support mechanisms, and fieldwork of civilian environmental supervisors, we found that their primary tasks were monitoring watershed conditions and mobilizing broader public participation, with selection criteria focusing on interest in watershed governance and regional influence. At the same time, training and expert support were provided to enhance their investigative capabilities and ensure accurate results. This also fostered greater commitment and confidence among the supervisors, further promoting public participation in watershed governance. Despite its success, the approach relied heavily on the groundwork and local networks of civilian river chiefs and required significant time and effort in the early stages, posing certain limitations. Full article

As a top-down type of water regulation, the River Chief System (RCS) in China has effectively enhanced urban water quality. Simultaneously, environmental control significantly impacts the financial performance of enterprises. In recent years, the tension between environmental protection and economic development has escalated, underscoring the undeniable economic ramifications of stringent water regulations. Enterprises are the fundamental agents of economic activities and environmental impact, thus becoming the primary targets of water environment regulatory policies. This study adopts the differences-in-differences (DID) method and uses a sample of listed enterprises in the Yangtze River Economic Belt region from 2010 to 2021 to study the impact of the RCS on the financial performance of enterprises. The results show that the RCS harms the financial performance of enterprises. This impact primarily manifests through increased environmental protection investments. Conversely, the RCS does not have a positive influence on enterprises’ technological innovation. This indicates the challenge of stringent top-down environmental regulations in stimulating short-term technological advancements and enhancing enterprise performance. Moreover, the adverse effects of the RCS on financial performance are notably pronounced for non-state-owned enterprises and those located in the upper Yangtze River Economic Belt. This suggests that private enterprises and those in less-developed regions exhibit lower resilience to top-down environmental regulations. Full article

As a result of water sustainability issues, China has enacted a range of policies to improve its water ecosystem since the middle of the 20th century. These measures include the creation of the Seven River Conservancy Commissions, the development (combination and recombination) of ministries and departments to address environmental pollution and degradation, and recently, the implementation of the river chief system. Considering the importance of global water sustainability and the positive impact Chinese measures have had in this area, the author will examine if the river chief can be transferred to other political jurisdictions. To do this, the author gathered data using keyword searches of the Web of Science and Google Scholar, official government sites, media sites and key international organizations. Based on this, the author reviews the development of the river chief system in the context of broader ecological reforms, places the rise of the river chief in the context of potential lessons for future improvement, and speculates on the possibility that China could transfer the river chief to countries facing similar challenges in their water governance regimes. Full article

Water quality prediction is essential for effective water resource management and pollution prevention. In China, research on predictive analytics for various water bodies has not kept pace with environmental needs. This study addresses this gap by conducting a comprehensive analysis and modeling of water quality monitoring data from multiple distributed water bodies specifically within the Yangtze River Delta. Using a novel approach, this paper introduces a distributed water quality prediction system enhanced by a CNN-LSTM joint model. This model synergistically combines convolutional neural networks (CNN) and long short-term memory (LSTM) networks to robustly extract and utilize spatiotemporal data, thereby significantly improving the accuracy of predicting dynamic water quality trends. Notably, the excellent predictive performance of the joint model enables its prediction results to achieve RMSE and MAPE as low as 1.08% and 6.8%, respectively. Empirical results from this study highlight the system’s superior predictive performance. Based on these findings, this paper offers targeted recommendations for water quality monitoring, treatment, and management strategies tailored to the specific needs of the Yangtze River Delta. These contributions are poised to aid policymakers and environmental managers in making more informed decisions. Full article

The river and lake chief system offers a valuable policy toolkit to mitigate the degradation of water ecology, thereby bolstering water resource management for sustainable water development in China. To evaluate the effects of implementation and improve policy, this study took Beijing as a typical case and conducted a quantitative assessment using multidimensional data. The findings suggest that while the river and lake chief system in Beijing is effective and has significantly contributed to the ecological management of rivers and lakes, there are also notable regional disparities and urban–rural divergences. In addition, human activities are the main sources of environmental pollution in rivers and lakes, which should be the focus of the river and lake chief system. The river and lake chief system needs to embed more public participation and cooperative governance. This research aids in better understanding China’s river and lake chief system for both researchers and practitioners, facilitating the advancement of the knowledge body of global water policy and governance. Full article

The river chief system (RCS) is an innovative reform in China for strengthening the management of rivers and lakes. It is an important means of curbing the current severe water-environment situation. However, the policy impact of the RCS is still inconclusive in the existing literature. Using monthly data spanning from January 2015 to March 2022 from 25 water quality monitoring stations in rivers flowing into the sea across 13 prefecture-level cities in Guangdong Province, this study adopted regression discontinuity to evaluate the policy effects of the RCS on water quality. The results show that after the RCS’s full implementation in Guangdong Province, the concentrations of dissolved oxygen (DO) increased and water quality indicators, such as permanganate index (COD_Mn), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), ammonia nitrogen (NH₃-N), chemical oxygen demand (COD), and total phosphorus (TP), decreased; NH₃-N showed the largest decrease. These findings indicate that the RCS may contribute to a measurable improvement in reducing water pollution. However, no statistically significant changes in pH and total nitrogen (TN) were found, which indicates that the RCS fell short of achieving the policy effect of comprehensive water-pollution control. Therefore, in order to improve the RCS, it is necessary to refine the existing water-quality assessment indicators and to establish an evaluation system centered on the ecological health of rivers and lakes. Additionally, a paradigm shift from an administrative-boundary-based river management model to an overarching, holistic river-basin-based management approach is crucial for actualizing the holistic governance goals of the RCS. Full article

The implementation of China’s water pollution control policy is facing challenges. The current situation requires that China’s water pollution control must be transformed from a hierarchical management system to a collaborative governance model, which has led to the emergence of the river chief system (RCS). Firstly, this research analyzes the water quality in the lower Yangtze River Basin in the past five years, and the results show that the overall water quality of the study area has improved. Secondly, this research is conducted from the perspective of the four functions of adaptation (A), goal attainment (G), integration (I), and latency pattern maintenance (L), using the AGIL paradigm as a model to analyze the operation of RCS and carry out a cross-study on environmental protection and public policy, which provides a precedent for future public policy research and discussion. Finally, based on the AGIL paradigm, this research puts forward the development direction of RCS, which provides experience and theoretical support for other countries’ watershed pollution research. Full article

This article presents a systematic review of studies of the River Chief System (RCS). It utilizes a dataset comprising 363 high-quality papers published between 2009 and 2022, sourced from the Web of Science and the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), as the foundation for analysis. The primary research method employed is a literature review. Additionally, CiteSpace bibliometric software (v6.2.R2) is used to perform keyword analysis of RCS research. The key research findings include the following points. Firstly, research into RCS has undergone two phases. Secondly, the review presents several points emergent in the literature that have been the focus of much study, including governance logics, theoretical foundations, operational mechanisms, policy effects, and current challenges. Furthermore, the author identifies key trends in the evolution of RCS, such as public participation, the utilization of information technology, and the implementation of the Lake Chief System, Forestry Chief System, and Field Chief System, as well as the construction of a rule of law. Finally, the author suggests that international comparative studies and an inquiry into long-term mechanisms for the implementation of the RCS are needed. This paper provides the first systematic review of the growing literature on RCS, based on papers written in both Chinese and English. It maps out key research points, identifies research trends, and provides a deeper understanding to guide future research. Full article

To scientifically evaluate the implementation of the River Chief System (RCS), accelerate the overall improvement of the water ecological environment, and promote the sustainable development of river and lake functions, this study selects 26 evaluation indicators from six aspects, including the effectiveness of organization and management, the effectiveness of water resources protection, the effectiveness of water environment management, the effectiveness of water pollution prevention and control, the effectiveness of water ecological restoration, and the effectiveness of the management of the waterside shoreline, and establishes an evaluation system for the effectiveness of the implementation of the RCS. Among the 26 indicators, data for the qualitative indicators mainly come from a series of statistical yearbooks and RCS reports, while data for the quantitative indicators are obtained through scoring by more than 20 experts and calculating the average. The CRITIC objective weighting method is improved from three aspects of comparison intensity, correlation coefficient, and degree of variation, and the subjective weighting of indicators is carried out using the AHP 1–5 scale method. The optimal linear combination of subjective and objective weighting results is obtained using the combination weighting method with game theory, which is auxiliary to the set pair analysis. Considering the “certainty” and “uncertainty” in the evaluation process, the four-element connection number model of set pair analysis is established to evaluate the implementation effect of the RCS in Henan Province from 2018 to 2021. The results show that the implementation effect of the RCS in Henan Province improves year by year and reaches excellent in 2019. The results of this study can be used as a reference for evaluating the work of the RCS in other regions and can also provide a reference for the study of evaluation problems in other fields. Full article

This paper outlines and analyses preliminary research in South Australia’s Riverland, part of Australia’s largest river system, the Murray–Darling Basin, and one of the nation’s most important horticultural production areas. It focuses on the Renmark Irrigation Trust (RIT), which supplies water to c570 irrigators. Management of the Basin is controversial, with conflicting demands from stakeholders, including smallholder irrigators, broadacre farming, indigenous groups, and the environment. Climate change and the water market have contributed to uncertainty over environmental sustainability. Using sequential mixed methods, including a questionnaire survey, focus groups and interviews, we investigate the chief risks perceived by irrigators and their future-plans in face of concerns over variable water flows and economic uncertainty. We highlight the RIT’s contribution to river restoration and investigate its plans for additional on-farm water stewardship. We reveal high levels of uncertainty among irrigators regarding their future viability, including unintended consequences from the water market, the controversial role of water brokers, and environmental viability of the river system. The growth of ‘lifestyle blocks’ occupied by hobby farmers has added both to landscape diversity and fragmentation. To maintain a resilient horticultural industry, there may need to be adjustments to water management in the Basin to protect smallholders’ livelihoods whilst continuing to meet specified environmental needs. Full article

The River Chief System (RCS) is an innovative environmental governance system with Chinese characteristics that is significant for green and sustainable development, and green technology innovation (GTI) is a key step to achieve this goal. However, existing studies have not proved the effect of RCS on GTI. Therefore, this paper takes the implementation of RCS as a quasi-natural experiment and the progressive spatial difference-in-differences model is used to empirically investigate the effect of water environment governance policies on GTI, based on the panel data of 108 prefecture-level cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) from 2004 to 2019. The results of this research show that: (1) GTI in the YREB shows a rapid growth trend, and the lower reaches are generally higher than the middle and upper reaches; (2) RCS can improve the local GTI by 19.43% and has a significant positive incentive effect on adjacent regions’ GTI, while the GTI itself can generate a positive spillover effect for adjacent regions; (3) Heterogeneity analyses indicate that RCS has a stronger facilitation in the spontaneous parallel diffusion form cities and middle and lower reaches, while having an inhibition in riverine cities. In terms of spatial effects, RCS has a stronger positive spillover effect in the adjacent untreated area and upper reaches, while having a negative spillover effect in the spontaneous parallel diffusion form cities; (4) Government governance, official incentive and social supervision can enhance the effect of RCS on GTI. This study provides useful empirical evidence for environmental governance and green sustainable development of the YREB. Full article