Study On The Institutional Framework And Allocation Technologies Of Water Rights

The national water rights institutional system underlies China’s water resources public policy. Both the Decision on Accelerating the Water Resources Reform and Development realeased by the Central Committee of the CPC and the State Council in2011(hereinafter referred to as the No.1Document), and the Opinions on Implementing the Most Strict Water Resources Management System released by the State Council in2012(hereinafter referred to as the No.3Document) make clear to build and improve national water rights institution. Water rights institution mainly consists of two systems, namely the water rights defining system and water rights implementing system. The water rights defining system, which can be realized through administrative and market-oriented means, builds a bridge between the national proprietary rights and the water users’rights. By the administrative means, the initial allocation of scarce public resources can be achieved, while the market-oriented means is an important supplement to improve water rights allocation efficiency. In addition to the regulations on building and improving the water rights institution, the No.1Document in2011and No.3Document in2012both emphasize the market role in the rational allocation of water resources.The building of China’s water rights institution can be dated back to1980s and1990s. Along with the increasingly serious water scarcity, it has become a pressing task and urgently needs to be put into practice. Reearch in this paper built upon three theoretical bases, namely the property theory, new institutional economics theory and the game theory. The water rights institution includes two basic systems for defining and implementing water rights. The defining of water rights can be further divided into initial administrative water allocation and secondary market-oriented water allocation. Three systems, namely the river water quantity allocation system, total quantity control of water abstraction and use system as well as the water abstraction licence system are fundamental elements to the initial administrative water allocation system. The market-oriented water allocation mainly relates to the transfer ways, the transfer price and the third-party interest compensation. The water rights implementing system, mainly including the planned water use management system and water resources regulation system, constitute the guarantee for the water users to exercise their ownership.In this paper, on the basis of the research on the overall water rights institutional framework and in the light of the demand for the water rights defining technologies, water rights allocation and transfer researches were carried out. In view of the fact that water rights allocation results are acceptable, NSGA-Ⅱ calculation method was introduced. The quantitative relationship between the water rights allocation principles was revealed through calculating the Pareto front of each water rights allocation principle, achieving a more visualized mechanism and process. Compared with the traditional multi-objective optimized calculation method, which turns the multiple objectives to every single objective by introducing weight, the NSGA-II calculation method can reveal the corresponding complete Pareto front to every water rights allocation principle. It is evidently superior to spatial optimization in a non-inferior solution group. The initial water rights allocation plan for the Yellow River in the year1987was experimentally re-evaluated against the current background, and the optimized direction was pointed out. In terms of water rights tading pricing technology, a balanced pricing method was developed for market supply and demand balance which takes into account the impact of the third party. That is, when setting the water rights transfer price, a balance should be achieved based on the willingness of the transfer-in and-out parties while considering the impact of the third party. The price of transfer-out party can be achieved through adopting the deducting water non-cost method and benefit share coefficient method. The third party compensation price calculation can be achieved by two methods, namely, the cost-based estimate method and loss-based estimate method. The payment willingness of the transfer-in party is closely related with the economic value output and can be decided by the deducting water non-cost method, benefit share coefficient method, substitute project cost method and affordable capability analysis method. In this paper, the above-mentioned technologies were applied in the water rights transfer pricing in Ningxia Autonomous Region for its agricultural irrigation water to transfer to the industrial sector and a reference price was proposed based on the current water rights transfer situation.In this paper, some preliminary efforts have been made in exploring the knowledge on the water rights institutional framework and R&D on key supporting technologies. However, the water rights institution in itself is quite complicated. Moreover, it involves the right standardization and interest adjustment of all related parties. Therefore, no matter the clarification of the water rights institutional framework or the innovation and implementation of technologies on water rights allocation and transfer all need to be further checked and improved through practices.