A Successful Approach of the First Ecological Compensation Demonstration for Crossing Provinces of Downstream and Upstream in China

Guoguang Li, Qingxiu Wang, Guihuan Liu, Yue Zhao, Yuqiu Wang, Shitao Peng, Yanjie Wei and Jinnan Wang
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Guoguang Li: Environmental Criteria, Ministry of Education, and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Environmental Remediation and Pollution Control, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China
Qingxiu Wang: Environmental Criteria, Ministry of Education, and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Environmental Remediation and Pollution Control, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China
Guihuan Liu: State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Environmental Planning and Policy Simulation, Chinese Academy for Environmental Planning, Beijing 100012, China
Yue Zhao: State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Environmental Planning and Policy Simulation, Chinese Academy for Environmental Planning, Beijing 100012, China
Yuqiu Wang: Environmental Criteria, Ministry of Education, and Tianjin Key Laboratory of Environmental Remediation and Pollution Control, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Nankai University, Tianjin 300071, China
Shitao Peng: Ministry of Transport of the People’s Republic of China, Tianjin Research Institute for Water Transport Engineering, Tianjin 300456, China
Yanjie Wei: Ministry of Transport of the People’s Republic of China, Tianjin Research Institute for Water Transport Engineering, Tianjin 300456, China
Jinnan Wang: State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Environmental Planning and Policy Simulation, Chinese Academy for Environmental Planning, Beijing 100012, China

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 12, issue 15, 1-18

Abstract: As the first pilot provincial water environmental compensation set up at the national level, the Xin’anjiang River Basin plays a very important exemplary and guiding role in the ecological compensation of transboundary basins in China. There is no paper evaluating the environmental performance in watershed scale after getting rid of the natural factor’s effect. Here we issue a new approach to evaluate it, combing the SPAtially Referenced Regression On Watershed attributes (SPARROW) models and data envelopment analysis (DEA) method, based on counterfactual scenarios. After ecological compensation, the results show that the decrease of total nitrogen (TN) non-point source export coefficient was stable (17.16–17.78% in different sources), while that of total phosphorus (TP; 8.51–17.75%) and permanganate index (COD Mn ; 13.10–21.41%) was not. The projects of fertilizer application’s effects were relatively obvious; on average, the decreases of the export coefficients were 17.16%, 17.75%, and 21.41% in TN, TP, and COD Mn models, respectively, showing the importance of eco-compensation regulation, not only in non-point source pollution reduction but also resulting in high levels of eco-compensation efficiencies, especially in scale efficiencies. By assessing parameter and modeling uncertainty with the use of the generalized likelihood uncertainty estimation (GLUE) method, the models’ structure well represents the hydrological behavior. This study also provides policymakers with a new perspective in accurately measuring the impact of environmental performance, to guide the next step of environmental investment optimization.

Keywords: ecological compensation; environmental investment efficiency; SPARROW model; DEA method; counterfactual scenarios (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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