Financial and Economic Commission of the CPC Central Committee held its sixth meeting on Jan. 3.
Addressing the issue of ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin, General Secretary Xi Jinping stressed in an important speech that great efforts must be made to greatly protect and harness the Yellow River Basin and follow the path of ecological protection and high-quality development.
After years of research, we believe that under the impact of climate change and strong human activities, in-depth systematic research and comprehensive coordination are the guarantee for the effective implementation of the national strategy of ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin.
Since the 1950s, China has carried out a series of planning for the Yellow River. Since the 21st century, relevant planning has been enriched with the main tributaries of the Yellow River as the focus.
However, the quantitative analysis of meteorological data over the past 50 years shows that the frequency of both extreme precipitation and drought in the Yellow River basin increases.
In the context of an overall adverse climate, vegetation improvement in the Yellow River Basin has accounted for about 60% of the area in the past 30 years, indicating significant achievements in ecological protection and restoration, but also exacerbating water resource risks.
In addition, significant progress has been made in the study of water and sediment variation and its causes. According to relevant studies, the water and sediment of the Yellow River showed a decreasing trend in the past 70 years, with an annual runoff reduction of 17.9%~40.8% and an annual sediment transport reduction of over 46.7%.
Soil erosion also tends to decrease. However, there are high spatiotemporal variability and complexity in both water and sediment processes and soil erosion as well as related influencing factors.
With the increasing efforts to control and control the water quality of the Yellow River, the water quality of the main stream has generally improved in recent years. Water pollution problems at the tributaries and regional levels are still widespread, and industrial pollution, urban and agricultural non-point source pollution have not been effectively controlled
Local ecological destruction is still serious, and the pattern of ecological protection needs to be optimized.
At present, in view of the insufficient comprehensiveness of the planning work of the Yellow River Basin, the lack of sufficient attention paid by relevant studies to the dynamic coupling effect of multiple elements and processes between human and environment, and the lack of international vision in planning and research, we put forward the following Suggestions
First, we need to strengthen comprehensive and overall planning.
After the publication of General Secretary Xi Jinping's speech at the Symposium on Ecological Protection and High-quality Development in the Yellow River Basin, relevant departments, relevant local government agencies, universities and research institutes are actively studying and planning for implementation.
However, the practice of Yellow River regulation and watershed development and the experience of international watershed management all indicate that local and decentralized action plans will face higher risks, such as the problems of the Sanmenxia water Conservancy project.
A 1996 report from Ontario, Canada, also showed that a lack of systematic consideration in watershed development led to engineering fixes for 17 problems, costing $7 billion, that could have been avoided by strengthening systematic watershed planning.
This also confirms the high importance of strengthening top-level design, research on major issues and institutional and institutional innovation. And strengthening the comprehensive and overall planning is one of its key links.
Must complete a comprehensive overall planning, it needs to national comprehensive coordination of industry departments, local governments, research institutions, etc., will be national strategic orientation and geographical characteristics, industry, local organic combination of function and appeal, as a whole new type of urbanization, rural revitalization, industry development, the allocation of resources, security and ecological security of the people's livelihood, on the basis of comprehensive planning, the river basin institutions and provincial administrative region of the coordination unit, prefecture-level administrative region of the management unit, county-level administrative region of the operation unit, and consider the interregional, implementation plan, for the ecological protection and high quality development of the Yellow River basin alignment direction, drew blueprint.
Second, major issues concerning ecological protection and sustainable development of river basins should be studied
Under the coupling action of natural and economic and social factors, the Yellow River basin forms a dynamic complex open giant system.
The upper, middle and lower reaches of the system have their own characteristics and are closely linked by water, soil, ecology and economic and social processes.
At the same time, there are interactions and feedbacks with the outside system in climate change, water resources, energy and food security.
Therefore, to meet the major national demands for ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin, it is urgent to systematically integrate economic, social, natural and ecological elements, develop theories and methods of complex large-scale systems in the basin, and provide scientific and technological support for national and regional strategic decision-making and comprehensive optimization management and control of basin adaptability.
The key points include: the hydrological and water resource effects of climate and ecosystem changes in the upper Yellow River; Coupling mechanism of water and soil conservation, ecological environment control and regional development in the middle Reaches of the Yellow River and its resource and environmental effects; Evolution of trough beach in the lower Reaches of the Yellow River, flood security, food security, water resources security and ecological security of the Yellow River Delta wetland; The multi-scale correlation mechanism between soil and water ecological process and regional development in the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow River basin; Ecological protection and Sustainable Development of the Yellow River Basin, regional differentiation, optimization and regulation.
Third, take the Yellow River Basin as a pilot to strengthen the capacity building of comprehensive scientific infrastructure.
The development of science has entered the era of big data.
The more complex the system is, the more it needs a lot of multi-source, multi-dimensional, long-term and reliable scientific data support.
In the international environment and economic and social related long-term dynamic monitoring, data storage, quality control, sharing mechanism and other aspects of good development, the establishment of the corresponding laws and regulations and standards, promote the establishment and development of ecological environment informatics and other related disciplines.
For the pilot to the Yellow River, the integration of the existing ecological environment monitoring station network and data resources, and improve and improve, research suitable for China's national conditions of watershed comprehensive monitoring and data sharing mechanism, explore standards and policy mechanism, the development of the corresponding subject, in order to improve our country's comprehensive scientific foundation ability construction to provide experiment and demonstration.
Fourth, strengthen international exchanges and cooperation and promote mutual learning and sharing of ecological protection and high-quality development in large river basins.
The Yellow River and the Yangtze River are among the largest in the world in terms of length and catchment area.
We need to strengthen international exchanges and cooperation in ecological protection and high-quality development, and draw on the advanced experience and achievements of developed countries and regions (especially arid, semi-arid and semi-humid areas) in the efficient use of water resources, ecological and environmental management and integrated watershed management. At the same time, we will promote China's progress and successful experience in large river basins to the international community, enhance China's international influence in relevant fields, and contribute China's scientific and practical paradigm of large river basins to the construction of "community with a Shared future for mankind" advocated by General Secretary Xi Jinping and the realization of the global 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.
(Author: Center for Ecological and Environmental Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences)
