Abstract:Water resources are the base of all life-system on the world. The demand for water from China‘s growing population is creating an ever-increasing pressure on the country‘s rivers and other ecosystems. The urgent need for domestic, agricultural and industrial water uses often conflicts with the water demand to maintain or improve ecosystem function. The allocation of water to sustain natural ecosystems, to restore rivers degraded by over-abstraction and to protect ecosystem services has become a key issue in...