Sustainable Water Management Solutions for Large Cities (Proceedings of symposium S2 held during the Seventh IAHS Scientific Assembly at Foz do Iguaçu, Brazil, April 2005). IAHS Publ. 293, 2005, 90-93.

1 Key Lab. of Water Cycle & Related Land Surface Processes, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, CAS, Beijing 100101, China

2 State Key Lab. of Water Resources & Hydropower Engineering Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China

Abstract Beijing, the capital of China, is a large city with a shortage of water. From 1999 to 2003, Beijing experienced a five-year drought which threatened the security of domestic and economic water use. The problem requires immediate solution through exploitation of water resources in the local basin, improving the utilization efficiency, transfer of water from outside basins and strengthening management and protection. In the near future, Beijing should rely more upon exploitation of the local water resources. Furthermore, the South-to-North Water Transfer Project will be a basic facility for mitigating the water resource crisis in Beijing. The reform of the management regime in Beijing demonstrates that the idea of sustainable management has become the fundamental prerequisite to the exploitation and utilization of water resources.

Key words Beijing; China; sustainable management; water resources