Client: Ministry of Environment, IMET (Italy) and Ministry of Water Resources (China)

Opportunity

One of the world’s largest and most ambitious engineering projects in the world, China’s South-North Water Diversion Project (SNWDP) is designed to solve the chronic water shortages in northern China by diverting 44.8 billion cubic meters of freshwater annually from the Yangtze River in southern China through three channels. A project of this scale called for tools and solutions to ensure that the diverted water is optimized and managed sustainably – the central aim of IMET’s supporting project “Sustainable Water Integrated Management of the Eastern Route (SWIMER)” (2004-2006).

Solution

As a key technical supplier to the SWIMER project, Hydro Nova provided a package of critical intelligence, optimization and protection services. A main product of our work was a Decision Support System (DSS) tool built on a multi-model platform, which allows the client to make macro-level decisions and manage the water in the canal to mitigate water shortages and pinpoint localized impacts along the canal. As a protective service, we studied the influence of the SNWDP on the environment, hydrology, soil, vegetation, geology, climate, and on economic and social development. Additional services provided for the East Route include: An assessment of the governance framework of the East Route; a study of the effects of East Route water diversion on climate change; Development of a GIS tool for planning and mapping; A comparative review of international best practices for Inter-Basin Water Transfer (IBWT) projects worldwide; and preparation of a project proposal to apply for additional funding from the Global Environmental Facility (GEF) to expand the SWIMER project to greater scales and areas.

Outcome

For the year 2010, Chinese planners used the tool to simulate a significant reduction in water shortages with diverted water, cutting shortages from 13% down to 4%.