Water sustainability: the prospect of transfer projects in China

Affected by global climate change, water shortages and other extreme weather, water scarcity in world is alarming sign. China is suffering from severe water shortage in northern areas due to multiple reasons such as declining of runoff of main rivers to northern areas and serious rainfall shortage. This article provides the evidences regarding the feasibility and their technical, financial, political, socioeconomic, environmental from the aspects of two projects, Tunnel and Tianhe projects. The Tianhe water diversion project is expected to bring 2.5 billion cubic meters of precipitation in the Sanjiangyuan area, 200 million in the Qilian Mountains area and 120 million in the Qaidam area every year. On the other hand, the Tibet-Xinjiang Tunnel, which would be the longest water divert tunnel in the world, plan to divert the water from Tibet to Xinjiang using a 1000-kilometer tunnel. The project is expected to turn Xinjiang into California, which could carry 10 to 15 billion tons of water each year. These two projects are anticipated to solve the problem of water, food and drought in the country. In addition, the integrated telecoupling helps to promote ecosystem services research and governance, identify knowledge gaps, guide research design, and strengthen the interaction between researchers and stakeholders.