Ten years of water regulation for the South-to-North Water Diversion Project

Wang Hao; Wang Chao; Zhang Zhao

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1000-1123.2024.20.002

Abstract：The South-to-North Water Diversion Project is the world's largest and longest water diversion project,with the largest beneficiary population and widest range of benefits.The scale and difficulty of its water scheduling problem are unprecedented.Since the project has been put into operation for ten years,the state has carried out effective water regulation practices,which provides reliable water resources support for optimizing water resources allocation,ensuring drinking water safety and reviving the ecological environment of rivers and lakes.This paper summarizes the practical experience and significant achievements of water regulation in the South-to-North Water Diversion Project from the perspectives of laws and regulations,institutional mechanisms,and information support capabilities,providing reference and guidance for water regulation of inter-basin water diversion projects and the future national water network regulation.Facing the new changes of the water supply and demand patterns in the source and receiving areas,the operation management system of the project,the planning and construction of subsequent projects,and the practices of operation and management,the new demand for water dispatching of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project is analyzed from the aspects of unconventional water resources utilization,accurate water quantity monitoring,improvement of water price mechanism,and low-carbon operation technology.Finally,in the view of the new development pattern of national water network construction and continuous promotion of high-quality development of the follow-up projects,this paper analyzes the new challenges of water dispatching from the aspects of water dispatching,emergency dispatching capacity improvement and dispatching intelligence under the water network pattern,so as to provide reference for water regulation of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project in the next stage.