Water resources allocation is a process for changing the natural or status quo distribution of water resources to meet requirements for economic and social development. The uneven distribution of water resources across China, both in space and time, makes water resources allocation of particular importance. China has developed a legal framework for the allocation of water resources that operates at three levels: at the river basin/regional level, at the abstractor level, and within public water supply systems. China has also built related systems to manage these allocations. Water resources allocation planning, and the implementation of related management systems, is occurring across China. However, there are significant problems in respect of how issues of integration and consistency between these three levels of allocation are addressed. Water resources allocation plans will need to be adopted as regulatory instruments, rather than the aspirational targets they currently are, to provide greater certainty for water users. Reversing the deteriorating health of rivers and freshwater ecosystems will require plans to set aside more water to meet ecological flow requirements. At a more basic level, the allocation and planning process would benefit greatly from utilization of water resources management models and increased stakeholder involvement.

This paper reviews water pricing reform in China after 1980, including framework, process, forces and considerations. China collects a water resources fee, a water supply tariff for hydraulic engineering, an urban water supply tariff, a wastewater collection and treatment tariff, and a pollutant discharge fee. The reform has been an exploration process. In theory, a comprehensive, systematic and advanced policy and framework have been developed. However, in practice, the reforms fluctuate among economic, social and environmental targets; do not comply with the reform objectives; and are heavily affected by external social and economic factors rather than by internal factors.

After introducing groundwater development and other issues, the paper analyzes China's groundwater management system and its problems, and provides suggestions for improving the system. Increasing water demand since the 1970s has resulted in severe groundwater overdraft, water level decline and water quality degradation in China, but the current management system is not able to provide an effective and efficient solution. The legislation is separate and local, the management institutions are locally designed and the key management instruments are not integrated. This is because China lacks distinct groundwater management systems, comprehensive legislation, a quality management system and capacity, as well as coordinated institutions, and clear relationships and effective links among systems. To improve groundwater management, the concept of aquifer management and an integrated groundwater management system must be developed. The existing systems need to be restructured to clarify relationships and functions. The groundwater abstraction permit system needs to be reformed to a group permit. A quality management system is required and capacity building must be strengthened.

China's rivers face major challenges arising from social and economic development, particularly associated with pollution and over-abstraction. Although these issues vary significantly across the country, China has adopted a national, unified approach to manage water resources in a river basin context. This paper assesses the legal and institutional arrangements for river basin management in terms of decentralization and centralization. It considers the appropriate roles for the different levels of government, including providing for participation and integration across these levels. It proposes strengthening institutional development and capacity building in the future.

The strategy of “Basing city, land, population and production on water resources”, clarifying the water uses of each province and the influencing factors are crucial to the conservation and intensive use of water resources for the Yellow River basin. In this study, physical water use, the production-based water footprint, and the consumption-based water footprint of nine provinces in the Yellow River Basin from 2007 to 2017 are measured. Then, the key influencing factors of three kinds of water use are analyzed by the random forest model. The results show that (1) the three kinds of water use in the Yellow River basin all showed a trend of first increasing and then decreasing. Physical water use and the production-based water footprint present the geographical differentiation in the declining order from the upper reach to the lower reach, and then the middle reach, while the order for the consumption-based water footprint is the lower reach, the upper reach, and the middle reach. (2) Agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, fisheries, electricity and hot water production, supply, and chemicals are the dominant sectors of physical water use. Agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry, fisheries, food processing, tobacco, and construction are the key sectors for production-based and consumption-based water footprints. (3) The results of the random forest model show the influencing factors and their interactions of three kinds of water use in the Yellow River basin present obvious sectoral differences. The key influencing factors exhibit a linear or nonlinear response to water use in the three perspectives. The influencing factors of water use are also differentiated among the three perspectives.