China has a significant deficiency in water resources available. The per capita water availability is only 1222 m3/yr. In the South there is a relative abundance of water while in the North there is a shortage of water.
There are serious Water Management issues in the largest river basins in China. The Sanxia reservoir (3-gorges area) is being constructed and filled at this very moment. Also there are major inter-river basin transfer works under construction (South to North diversion) which will have a huge impact on i) the Yangtze river basin and ii) the areas outside the basin where the water is transferred to. This impact has not been analyzed in sufficient detail yet. The Changjiang Water Resources Commission (Yangtse River Commission) (CWRC) has extensive plans to make the necessary analyses but currently lacks a suitable technology as well as the capability to do so.
Priority areas specified by CWRC are 1) Water resources monitoring by satellite; 2) Satellite based flood forecasting; 3) (Agricultural) water demand assessment; 4) Decision support systems for water allocation based on aforementioned systems.
As leading form of a consortium, Royal Haskoning evaluated the capabilities of CWRC. Based on the analysis, the possibilities for a wide Dutch water sector consortium to be commercially involved in activities addressing the particular needs as specified by CWRC was investigated.
More specifically the project aims to explore and promote the use of Dutch innovative technology in the field of satellite monitoring of the energy and water balance for monitoring water availability on one side and water demand on the other side, thus providing tools, which can also be used for assessment of water needs in the target areas which are to receive water from the planned Yangtze water diversion projects (South to North canals) and for the assessment of the consequences of the planned water diversion downstream in the Yangtze basin.
Activities that have been carried out included:
- Establishment of a good and operational communication platform with the relevant CWRC
- Management;
- Identification of the market for advanced Remote Sensing-based model application in the Yangtze River Basin.
- Identification of the market for Dutch consulting services in relation to the outlined areas of interest and more generally in the field of IWRM (including inter-basin water transfers, water demand analyses, institutional implementation) in the Yangtze River Basin;
- Identification of needs for capacity building related to the areas of interest outlined by CWRC;
- Formulation of concrete business opportunities and financing options in these fields
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