An Eco-Compensation Strategy in the Water Source Area: A Case for Southern Shaanxi in China

The South-to-North Water Transfer Project (SNWTP) in China which is the world’s largest water transfer project completed in 2014 is promoted as a strategy to mitigate water stresses in the northern China by the Chinese government and engineers. However, the ecological compensation of SNWTP in China has been slow and less for the people living in the water source area which was lost their opportunities to earn money; some had even lost their farmland. A key issue for SNWTP is to establish an eco-compensation system, define the compensation scheme, and make an effective economic compensation to the people living in the water source area. In this paper, we take the water source area of the Middle-Route project of SNWTP located in Southern Shaanxi including three cities called Hanzhong, Ankang and Shangluo as the research regions. Six factors are taken into consideration: (1) ecological losses, (2) economic losses and (3) ecological bonus in our eco-compensation strategy, as well as join two dynamic factors accounting in the calculation of ecological damage, (4) water quantity and (5) water quality. Besides, the total amount of compensation is changing over time. (6) Time scale factor is also used to simulate. In the article, we set three-time periods to calculate the different amount of compensation for the water source area. Finally, the Southern Shaanxi, supplied 70% water to Danjiangkou Reservoir, were analyzed by this model. We make full use of the reasonable eco-compensation strategy and try to solve actual problems of water source area and even provide a basis conception for the watershed protection and management.