An adaptive legal framework for water security concerns in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area

Ping Yu, Fan; Chun, Kwok

Abstract

For mitigating hydrological hazards, legal frameworks provide enforcement mechanisms to guide water governance which can increase the adaptability and resilience of water resources systems. In Global Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), water security aims at safeguarding adequate water quantity and quality, mitigating water-related risks, and addressing water-induced conflicts and tensions. Water security laws define rights and obligations associated with water use, and they provide prescriptive parameters for water resources management, including planning, implementation, monitoring, assessment, and optimization. In China, the primary components of the legal framework related to water resources and hazards include: the Water Law of the Peoples Republic of China, the Flood Control Law of PRC, the Water Pollution Prevention and Control Law of the PRC, the Soil and Water Conservation Law, and national Five-Year Plans (FYPs). However, climate change and urban growth are causing new complexities and uncertainties to Chinese water systems. Novel approaches, including big data and social participation, can offer effective responses to the dynamic changes derived from the climate as well as our social environments. By including diverse organizations of stakeholders into decision-making processes, feedback cycles could be created to optimize water resources laws in this changing time. Thus, there is a need to develop a new adaptive legal framework for water hazards to address emerging uncertainties and complexities of water hazards related to climate change and rapid development. This adaptive legal framework can support continuously improving water governance, and increasing water system adaptability and resilience, based on which, water governance helps to alleviate climate change challenges and sustain water resources.

• Online Publication Date: Aug 1, 2022
• Publication Date: 2022-10
• Deposit Date: May 2, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Feb 2, 2023
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Pages: 131-148
• Book Title: The Cambridge Handbook of Disaster Law and Policy
• Chapter Number: 8
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108770903.009
• Keywords: Water security, Legal framework, Adaptive governance, Big data, Participatory approach
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/9438578
• Publisher URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-handbook-of-disaster-law-and-policy/an-adaptive-legal-framework-for-water-security-concerns-in-the-guangdonghong-kongmacao-greater-bay-area/8ED41E609256B37C77059096C9B269CC
• Related Public URLs: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/cambridge-handbook-of-disaster-law-and-policy/594D07633E88D148EFEB1DC22F8E0A3D