Factors Influencing the Regional Diffusion of Watershed Ecological Compensation Policies: A Case Study of China
Publication: Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management
Volume 149, Issue 11
Abstract
Basin ecological compensation policy is a regulatory policy that coordinates environmental protection, economic construction, and social development in a watershed. The policy helps alleviate problems such as unequal responsibilities for environmental protection and large disparities in economic conditions in different basin regions, enabling better implementation of scientific and green development. Although different regions implement policies differently, studying the factors influencing the diffusion of these policies can help develop an understanding of the elements that promote or hinder policy implementation. Such work can provide a reference for different provinces to develop implementation plans suitable for their regions. Using watershed ecological compensation policy data from 31 provincial administrative regions in China from 2005 to 2018, an interprovincial event history analysis was conducted to study the factors influencing the diffusion of watershed ecological compensation policies. Our findings show that financial support, proximity diffusion, and vertical pressure significantly affect the diffusion of watershed compensation policies at the level of ; below the poor quality of Class 3 cross section, and regional watershed area are correlated with the diffusion of watershed compensation policies at the level of . In contrast, water pollution events, forest cover, water resources per capita, and gross domestic product per capita were not directly correlated with national diffusion variables at the 0.05 level.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Data Availability Statement
All the data are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank the anonymous experts for their advice on this manuscript.
References
Allison, P. D. 2014. Event history and survival analysis. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
Aplin, L. 2016. “Understanding the multiple factors governing social learning and the diffusion of innovations.” Curr. Opin. Behav. Sci. 12 (Dec): 59–65. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2016.09.003.
Barton, T. R., V. K. Pillai, and T. J. Dietz. 1996. “Program evaluation using event history analysis.” Eval. Pract. 17 (1): 7–17. https://doi.org/10.1177/109821409601700104.
Benchekroun, H., and A. R. Chaudhuri. 2014. “Transboundary pollution and clean technologies.” Resour. Energy Econ. 36 (2): 601–619. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.reseneeco.2013.09.004.
Berry, W. D., and B. Baybeck. 2005. “Using geographic information systems to study interstate competition.” Am. Political Sci. Rev. 99 (4): 505–519. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055405051841.
Blatter, J., L. Portmann, and F. Rausis. 2022. “Theorizing policy diffusion: From a patchy set of mechanisms to a paradigmatic typology.” J. Eur. Public Policy 29 (6): 805–825. https://doi.org/10.1080/13501763.2021.1892801.
Braun, D., and F. Gilardi. 2006. “Taking ‘Galton’s Problem’ seriously: Towards a theory of policy diffusion.” J. Theor. Polit. 18 (3): 298–322. https://doi.org/10.1177/0951629806064351.
Bulte, E. H., L. Lipper, R. Stringer, and D. Zilberman. 2008. “Payments for ecosystem services and poverty reduction: Concepts, issues, and empirical perspectives.” Environ. Dev. Econ. 13 (3): 245–254. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1355770X08004348.
Butler, D. M., C. Volden, A. M. Dynes, and B. Shor. 2017. “Ideology, learning, and policy diffusion: Experimental evidence.” Am. J. Polit. Sci. 61 (1): 37–49. https://doi.org/10.1111/ajps.12213.
Castro, A. J., C. C. Vaughn, M. García-Llorente, J. P. Julian, and C. L. Atkinson. 2016. “Willingness to pay for ecosystem services among stakeholder groups in a South-Central U.S. watershed with regional conflict.” J. Water Resour. Plann. Manage. 142 (9): 05016006. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)WR.1943-5452.0000671.
Chen, F. 2013. “Policy diffusion, policy transfer and policy convergence—A comparison based on concepts, types and occurrence mechanisms.” J. Xiamen Univ. 6: 8–16.
Costanza, R., et al. 1997. “The value of the world’s ecosystem services and natural capital.” Nature 387 (6630): 253–260. https://doi.org/10.1038/387253a0.
Deng, M. H., Z. E. He, S. C. Cheng, and H. B. Zheng. 2023. “Ecological compensation effect assessment based on improved SobolSSA-ANP—Taihu Lake Basin as an example.” In South-to-North Water Transfers Water Sci. Technol. 21 (1): 148–159. https://doi.org/10.13476/j.cnki.nsbdqk.2023.0016.
Douglas, J. H. 2012. “Commentary: A governor’s view of policy diffusion.” Public Administration Rev. 72 (6): 796–797. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-6210.2012.02660.x.
Engel, S., S. Pagiola, and S. Wunder. 2008. “Designing payments for environmental services in theory and practice: An overview of the issues.” Ecol. Econ. 65 (4): 663–674. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2008.03.011.
Farley, J., and R. Costanza. 2010. “Payments for ecosystem services: From local to global.” Ecol. Econ. 69 (11): 2060–2068. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2010.06.010.
Ferraro, P. J. 2008. “Asymmetric information and contract design for payments for environmental services.” Ecol. Econ. 65 (4): 810–821. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2007.07.029.
Gao, X., J. Shen, W. He, F. Sun, Z. Zhang, W. Guo, X. Zhang, and Y. Kong. 2019a. “An evolutionary game analysis of governments’ decision-making behaviors and factors influencing watershed ecological compensation in China.” J. Environ. Manage. 251 (Dec): 109592. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2019.109592.
Gao, X., J. Shen, W. He, F. Sun, Z. Zhang, X. Zhang, L. Yuan, and M. An. 2019b. “Multilevel governments’ decision-making process and its influencing factors in watershed ecological compensation.” Sustainability 11 (7): 1990. https://doi.org/10.3390/su11071990.
Geng, Y., E. Dai, and G. Wang. 2022. “Spatial and temporal distribution, evolution and impact mechanism of water pollution events in China.” [In Chinese.] Environ. Pollut. Prev. 44 (3): 413–419. https://doi.org/10.15985/j.cnki.1001-3865.2022.03.023.
Gilardi, F., and F. Wasserfallen. 2019. “The politics of policy diffusion.” Eur. J. Political Res. 58 (4): 1245–1256. https://doi.org/10.1111/1475-6765.12326.
Graham, E. R., C. R. Shipan, and C. Volden. 2013. “The diffusion of policy diffusion research in political science.” Br. J. Political Sci. 43 (3): 673–701. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007123412000415.
Grima, N., S. J. Singh, B. Smetschka, and L. Ringhofer. 2016. “Payment for ecosystem services (PES) in Latin America: Analysing the performance of 40 case studies.” Ecosyst. Serv. 17 (Feb): 24–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecoser.2015.11.010.
Guo, J. Y., and S. L. Chen. 2019. “Evolutionary game analysis of ecological compensation in the economic transition of state-owned forest areas.” Appl. Ecol. Environ. Res. 17 (6): 14425–14434. https://doi.org/10.15666/aeer/1706_1442514434.
Guseo, R., and M. Guidolin. 2015. “Heterogeneity in diffusion of innovations modelling: A few fundamental types.” Technol. Forecast. Soc. Change 90 (Jan): 514–524. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2014.02.023.
Hack, J. 2015. “Application of payments for hydrological ecosystem services to solve problems of fit and interplay in integrated water resources management.” Water Int. 40 (5–6): 929–948. https://doi.org/10.1080/02508060.2015.1096122.
Hu, D., M. Lin, and X. Chen. 2022. “Assessment of water environment benefits of horizontal ecological compensation policy in watersheds.” China Environ. Sci. 42 (11): 5447–5456. http://doi:10.19674/j.cnki.issn1000-6923.20220709.010.
Huang, Y., F. Mi, J. Wang, X. Yang, and T. Yu. 2022. “Water pollution incidents and their influencing factors in China during the past 20 years.” Environ. Monit. Assess. 194 (3): 182. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-022-09838-4.
Jiang, Y., and X. Wang. 2020. “Policy diffusion perspective on the diffusion of policy innovation in China’s PPPs.” Sci. Technol. Manage. Res. 1 (40): 13–19.
Johst, K., M. Drechsler, and F. Wätzold. 2002. “An ecological-economic modelling procedure to design compensation payments for the efficient spatio-temporal allocation of species protection measures.” Ecol. Econ. 41 (1): 37–49. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0921-8009(02)00019-8.
Ju, W. H., H. L. Sun, Y. Zhao, and H. L. Liu. 2019. “Development practice and policy suggestions of Chinese watershed ecological compensation.” [In Chinese.] Environ. Dev. 11 (31): 1–2. https://doi.org/10.16647/j.cnki.cn15-1369/X.2019.11.001.
Kai, X., F. Kong, N. Zhang, N. Lei, and C. Sun. 2018. “Analysis of the factors influencing willingness to pay and payout level for ecological environment improvement of the Ganjiang River Basin.” Sustainability 10 (7): 2149. https://doi.org/10.3390/su10072149.
Keen, D. 2012. “What can be learned from what has been done? Policy diffusion and a web-based tool supporting Canadian obesity prevention policy.” J. Sci. Med. Sport 15 (Dec): S263–S264. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsams.2012.11.894.
Kheirinejad, S., O. Bozorg-Haddad, V. P. Singh, and H. A. Loáiciga. 2022. “The effect of reducing per capita water and energy uses on renewable water resources in the water, food and energy nexus.” Sci. Rep. 12 (1): 7582. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-11595-w.
Lei, H., L. Fang, Z. Qian, C. Xu, M. Deng, and X. Liu. 2012. “The quantitative analysis of ecological compensation responsibility in watershed.” Energy Procedia 16 (Jan): 1324–1331. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.egypro.2012.01.212.
Ma, Q. H., and P. F. Du. 2015. “Research on the evaluation of ecological compensation policy effect in Xin’an River Basin.” China Environ. Manage. 7 (3): 63–70. http://doi:10.16868/j.cnki.1674-6252.2015.03.012.
Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People’s Republic of China. 2018. “Bulletin on the State of China’s ecological environment.” Accessed March 20, 2023. https://www.mee.gov.cn/hjzl/sthjzk/.
Ministry of Finance, People’s Republic of China. 2016. “Guiding opinions on accelerating the establishment of a horizontal ecological protection compensation mechanism for upstream and downstream basins.” Accessed April 20, 2023. http://www.mof.gov.cn/gkml/caizhengwengao/2017wg/wg201704/ 201708/t20170807_2667947.htm.
Ministry of Water Resources of the People’s Republic of China. 2018a. “China water resources bulletin.” Accessed April 12, 2023. http://www.mwr.gov.cn/sj/tjgb/szygb/201907/t20190712_1349118.html.
Ministry of Water Resources of the People’s Republic of China. 2018b. “China water resources bulletin (2005-2018).” Accessed November 1, 2023. http://szy.mwr.gov.cn/gbsj/index.html.
Mitchell, J. L. 2017. “Does policy diffusion need space? Spatializing the dynamics of policy diffusion.” Policy Stud. J. 46 (2): 424–451. https://doi.org/10.1111/psj.12226.
National Bureau of Statistics. 2018. “China Statistical Yearbook (2005-2018).” China Statistics Press. Accessed June 1, 2022. http://www.stats.gov.cn/sj/ndsj/.
National Environmental Protection Agency. 2002. “Environmental quality standards for surface water of the People’s Republic of China.” Accessed November 12, 2022. https://www.mee.gov.cn/ywgz/fgbz/bz/bzwb/shjbh/shjzlbz/200206/W020061027509896672057.pdf.
Nimubona, A.-D., and J.-C. Pereau. 2022. “Negotiating over payments for wetland ecosystem services.” Can. J. Econ. 55 (3): 1507–1538. https://doi.org/10.1111/caje.12605.
Osán, J., S. Török, B. Alföldy, and G. Falkenberg. 2004. “Characterization of anthropogenic sediment particles after a transboundary water pollution of river Tisza using synchrotron radiation.” Spectrochim. Acta, Part B 59 (5): 701–708. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sab.2004.02.002.
Pagiola, S., A. Arcenas, and G. Platais. 2005. “Can payments for environmental services help reduce poverty? An exploration of the issues and the evidence to date from Latin America.” World Dev. 33 (2): 237–253. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2004.07.011.
Pan, X., L. Xu, Z. Yang, and B. Yu. 2017. “Payments for ecosystem services in China: Policy, practice, and progress.” J. Cleaner Prod. 158 (Aug): 200–208. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2017.04.127.
Shang, W., Y. Gong, Z. Wang, and M. J. Stewardson. 2018. “Eco-compensation in China: Theory, practices and suggestions for the future.” J. Environ. Manage. 210 (Mar): 162–170. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvman.2017.12.077.
Shen, J., et al. 2021. “Prospect theory in an evolutionary game: Construction of watershed ecological compensation system in Taihu Lake Basin.” J. Cleaner Prod. 291 (Apr): 125929. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2021.125929.
Shipan, C. R., and C. Volden. 2008. “The mechanisms of policy diffusion.” Am. J. Political Sci. 52 (4): 840–857. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-5907.2008.00346.x.
State Environmental Protection Agency. 2002. “National Standard of the People’s Republic of China – Environmental quality standards for surface water.” Accessed July 10, 2023. https://www.mee.gov.cn/ywgz/fgbz/bz/bzwb/shjbh/shjzlbz/200206/W020061027509896672057.pdf.
Sun, Y., and H. Li. 2021. “Data mining for evaluating the ecological compensation, static and dynamic benefits of returning farmland to forest.” Environ. Res. 201 (Oct): 111524. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2021.111524.
Tanaka, Y., and M. Nakayama. 2010. “Transboundary water dispute over the euphrates and Tigris River Basin—Historical review and assessment of settlement potential.” [In Japanese.] J. Jpn. Soc. Hydrol. Water Resour. Manage. 23 (2): 144–156. https://doi.org/10.3178/jjshwr.23.144.
Tosun, J., and A. Croissant. 2016. “Policy diffusion: A regime-sensitive conceptual framework.” Global Policy 7 (4): 534–540. https://doi.org/10.1111/1758-5899.12363.
Valente, T. W., S. R. Dyal, K.-H. Chu, H. Wipfli, and K. Fujimoto. 2015. “Diffusion of innovations theory applied to global tobacco control treaty ratification.” Social Sci. Med. 145 (Nov): 89–97. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2015.10.001.
Van Hecken, G., J. Bastiaensen, and W. F. Vásquez. 2012. “The viability of local payments for watershed services: Empirical evidence from Matiguás, Nicaragua.” Ecol. Econ. 74 (Feb): 169–176. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2011.12.016.
Volden, C., M. M. Ting, and D. P. Carpenter. 2008. “A formal model of learning and policy diffusion.” Am. Political Sci. Rev. 102 (3): 319–332. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003055408080271.
Wang, L. 2010. “Watershed eco-compensation mechanism and policy study in China.” Procedia Environ. Sci. 2 (Jan): 1290–1295. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.proenv.2010.10.139.
Wang, M., Q. Guo, B. Lin, M. Qin, and C. Wang. 2022. “Improvement of ecological compensation in China from the perspective of policy effectiveness.” [In Chinese.] World For. Res. 1: 130–135. https://doi.org10.13348j. cnki.sjlyyj.2022.0104.y.
Wang, Y., X. Wu, J. Shen, C. Chi, and X. Gao. 2021. “Analysis on decision-making changes of multilevel governments and influencing factors in watershed ecological compensation.” Complexity 2021 (Dec): 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1155/2021/6860754.
Xi, Y., and J. Wang. 2020. “Research on ecological compensation mechanism of watersheds in China from the perspective of marketization and diversification.” J. Univ. Electron. Sci. Technol. 1 (22): 54–60. https://doi.org/10.14071/j.1008-8105(2019)-1112.
Xie, Y., F. Kong, J. Zhang, Y. Li, G. Huang, and W. Zhang. 2022. “Medium- and long-term planning of an integrated eco-compensation system considering ecological water demand under uncertainty: A case study of Daguhe watershed in China.” J. Water Resour. Plann. Manage. 148 (10): 04022049. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)WR.1943-5452.0001594.
Xinhai, L., and K. Shangan. 2016. “Construction of a quantitative model of regional water resources ecological compensation based on ecological footprint model—The Yangtze River basin as an example.” [In Chinese.] Yangtze River Basin Resour. Environ. 25 (2): 334–341.
Yan, H. 2015. “The rational construction of ecological compensation mechanism in watersheds.” [In Chinese.] J. Nanjing Univ. Technol. 2 (14): 40–47. https://doi.org/10.3969/j.issn.1671-7287.2015.02.006.
Yiqi, W., and L. Guoping. 2020. “A study on the willingness to pay ecological compensation and its preference of residents in the middle and lower reaches of a watershed based on the choice experiment method—Taking the Weihe River Basin as an example.” J. Ecol. 40 (9): 2877–2885.
Zhang, M., J. Zhou, and R. Zhou. 2018. “Interval multi-attribute decision of watershed ecological compensation schemes based on projection pursuit cluster.” Water 10 (9): 1280. https://doi.org/10.3390/w10091280.
Zhang, Y. 2012. “Institutional sources of reform: The diffusion of land banking systems in China.” Manage. Organization Rev. 8 (3): 507–533. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1740-8784.2011.00256.x.
Zhang, Y., and X. Zhu. 2019. “Multiple mechanisms of policy diffusion in China.” Public Manage. Rev. 21 (4): 495–514. https://doi.org/10.1080/14719037.2018.1497695.
Zhao, J., and Y. Ge. 2019. “Practice, comparison and selection of ecological compensation models in watersheds.” J. Shandong Agric. Univ. 21 (2): 79–85.
Zhao, L., C. Li, R. Huang, S. Si, J. Xue, W. Huang, and Y. Hu. 2013. “Harmonizing model with transfer tax on water pollution across regional boundaries in a China’s Lake Basin.” Eur. J. Oper. Res. 225 (2): 377–382. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejor.2012.10.002.
Zheng, H. X., and Y. J. Kou. 2011. “The modes and mechanisms of ecological compensation in water source areas, Beijing, China.” Energy Procedia 13: 1–10380. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1876-6102(14)00454-8.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management
Volume 149 • Issue 11 • November 2023
Copyright
© 2023 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Oct 15, 2022
Accepted: Jun 20, 2023
Published online: Aug 24, 2023
Published in print: Nov 1, 2023
Discussion open until: Jan 24, 2024
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Business management
- Diffusion
- Economic factors
- Ecosystems
- Engineering mechanics
- Environmental engineering
- Infrastructure
- Pollution
- Practice and Profession
- River engineering
- River systems
- Social factors
- Thermodynamics
- Transport phenomena
- Urban and regional development
- Water and water resources
- Water management
- Water policy
- Water pollution
- Water resources
- Watersheds
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.