The Effect of water rights reallocation system of Yellow River Basin on water productivity, Regional Development and CO2 emission: a case study of Inner Mongolia, China

The regional development strategy of China was converted from “Coast regional priority development strategy” to “Regional balance development strategy” in 1999. Under this strategy, Northwest China was planned to be the energy production base for local development and supplying power to the Beijing economic bloc. However, the lack of the water resource obstructs the construction of the energy production base. With this background, it is expected to achieve regional development by implementation of “Reallocation of Water Right” policy with reallocation of resources, including electric power. This study reviews existing resource allocation systems, and issue the possibility of reallocation system through calculates the transferable water volume in Inner Mongolia, then analyzes the potential for regional development through the reallocation of water rights. The study also analyzes the impacts of water rights reallocation system on energy use and CO2 emission.