Chapter 11
The River and Lake Chief System
Abstract This chapter discusses the newly developed river and lake chief system in
China, including the development process, system framework, and implementation.
The river and lake chief system is a river and lake management and protection system
in China that aims to manage local government leadership on water resources. The
system development process demonstrates a combination of bottom-up and topdown approaches. The system was first adopted in certain specific prefectures and
was subsequently extended to other provinces across the whole country. The river
chief system was developed at the provincial, prefecture, county, and township levels.
The mechanisms of river chief meeting, information sharing, and supervision were
introduced to solve the key problems associated with river and lake management
and protection. The system is not a single system but rather a system aggregation,
covering areas such as water resource management, water pollution and river course
management. More importantly, the system is not a water resources management
system, but rather a leadership management system.
Keywords River and lake chief · Bottom-up and top-down approach · System
aggregation · A leadership management system
The river and lake chief system is a river and lake management and protection system
in China. The system sets out measures taken by local government leadership to
promote water resource management and water pollution control. It is regarded as
an innovative system that is intended to make local government leadership take
responsibility for the management and protection of rivers and lakes. In contrast to
other management systems in which the management target is water resources or
infrastructure, the river and lake chief system aims to encourage local leadership to
manage water resources. The system was implemented at the beginning of 2000 and
has been practiced all over China since 2016; a number of experiences and lessons
have been learned since this time, and there have also been a number of debates on
the issue.
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
D. Shen, Water Resources Management of the People’s Republic of China,
Global Issues in Water Policy 26, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61931-2_11
241
The River and Lake Chief System
Abstract This chapter discusses the newly developed river and lake chief system in
China, including the development process, system framework, and implementation.
The river and lake chief system is a river and lake management and protection system
in China that aims to manage local government leadership on water resources. The
system development process demonstrates a combination of bottom-up and topdown approaches. The system was first adopted in certain specific prefectures and
was subsequently extended to other provinces across the whole country. The river
chief system was developed at the provincial, prefecture, county, and township levels.
The mechanisms of river chief meeting, information sharing, and supervision were
introduced to solve the key problems associated with river and lake management
and protection. The system is not a single system but rather a system aggregation,
covering areas such as water resource management, water pollution and river course
management. More importantly, the system is not a water resources management
system, but rather a leadership management system.
Keywords River and lake chief · Bottom-up and top-down approach · System
aggregation · A leadership management system
The river and lake chief system is a river and lake management and protection system
in China. The system sets out measures taken by local government leadership to
promote water resource management and water pollution control. It is regarded as
an innovative system that is intended to make local government leadership take
responsibility for the management and protection of rivers and lakes. In contrast to
other management systems in which the management target is water resources or
infrastructure, the river and lake chief system aims to encourage local leadership to
manage water resources. The system was implemented at the beginning of 2000 and
has been practiced all over China since 2016; a number of experiences and lessons
have been learned since this time, and there have also been a number of debates on
the issue.
© The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2021
D. Shen, Water Resources Management of the People’s Republic of China,
Global Issues in Water Policy 26, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61931-2_11
241