A portfolio of China’s urban water governance sector: administrative system, coordination problems and policy evolution

ABSTRACT

Urban water governance in China has received increasing academic and policy attention owing to frequent urban water crises. Drawing on documentary analysis and field investigations, this article analyzes the administrative system and recent policy developments vis-à-vis urban water governance in China. It demonstrates the main problems of, and mechanisms for, interdepartmental and interjurisdictional coordination, and reviews new policy instruments addressing urgent urban water governance issues. The article argues that coordination mechanisms such as the river chief system are promising but their long-term effectiveness remains to be clarified, and more attention should be paid to policy enforcement and market mechanisms.

KEYWORDS:

• Urban water governance
• administrative system
• coordination
• policy process
• China

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China [2016YFC0401307], the General Research Fund of the Research Grants Council of Hong Kong [17676316], the National Natural Science Foundation of China [41801132].