​Guidelines on Promoting the Construction of Supporting Hydrological Facilities for Water Conservancy Projects​​

1.General Requirements

(1) Guiding Principles

Adhere to the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, fully implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, and focus on ensuring the safe and efficient operation of water conservancy projects, improving risk monitoring and early warning systems, enhancing disaster prevention and mitigation capabilities, and strengthening comprehensive water resource, water environment, and water ecological management. Promote the construction of supporting hydrological facilities for water conservancy projects, accelerate the improvement of water risk monitoring and early warning systems, build a modern national hydrological station network, and enhance hydrological support capabilities. This will provide a stronger foundation for safeguarding national water security and supporting socioeconomic development.

(2) Basic Principles

•Demand-driven, application-oriented: Prioritize the needs of ensuring safe and efficient operation of water conservancy projects, improving risk monitoring and early warning systems, and enhancing basin-wide and regional disaster prevention and mitigation capabilities. Promote the construction of supporting hydrological facilities in a coordinated manner to ensure practicality and effectiveness.

•Adaptation to local conditions, advanced and practical: Fully utilize existing hydrological station networks, determine the construction content of supporting hydrological facilities based on the characteristics and needs of different types and scales of water conservancy projects, and actively apply modern technologies and reliable new equipment.

•Rational layout, integrated implementation: Supporting hydrological facilities should align with existing hydrological station networks, avoiding redundancy. Where necessary, hydrological facilities should be designed and implemented simultaneously with the main project to ensure quality and proper operation.

•Unified management, innovative models: Supporting hydrological facilities should generally be managed by the water conservancy project management unit under the technical guidance of hydrological agencies. Innovative management models are encouraged, including outsourcing operation and maintenance to professional institutions to improve efficiency.

(3) Construction Tasks

Focus on key areas such as basin flood control, the national water network, river and lake ecological protection and restoration, and digital twin water conservancy infrastructure. New, renovated, expanded, or reinforced water conservancy projects should construct supporting hydrological facilities as needed. Existing and ongoing projects should gradually improve their supporting hydrological facilities to ensure comprehensive, timely, and high-quality construction.

2. Construction Content

(1) Reservoir Projects

All types of reservoirs should be equipped with hydrological facilities. Based on hydrological technical standards, review the number and layout of rainfall stations within the reservoir’s control basin, supplementing and improving rainfall monitoring networks as needed. Major inflow and outflow rivers should have hydrological facilities. Large reservoirs and particularly important medium-sized reservoirs should establish inflow and outflow hydrological stations and develop automatic rainfall-runoff monitoring and dispatching management systems.

Water level stations should be built upstream of dams. Large reservoirs and medium-sized reservoirs with significant sedimentation issues should monitor sediment levels. Reservoirs serving as drinking water sources should establish water quality and aquatic ecology monitoring stations. Hydrological facilities should meet ecological flow monitoring requirements.

(2) Levee Projects

Levee projects of different levels should establish water level or hydrological stations as needed, considering flood control and river flood forecasting requirements. The layout and number of stations should be determined based on levee length and river conditions.

(3) Flood Storage and Detention Areas

All flood storage and detention areas should establish water level stations or observation markers. The number and location should reflect changes in the water surface profile. Important areas with inlet/outlet gates should have water level monitoring facilities at key points.

(4) Mountain Torrent Disaster Prevention Projects

Mountain torrent disaster prevention projects should establish rainfall and water level stations. High-risk areas should increase rainfall station density based on watershed characteristics and village distribution. Key control sections should establish hydrological or water level stations.

(5) Water Diversion Projects

Major water diversion projects should establish hydrological stations or facilities at key points such as intake, distribution, and outlet gates, as well as at basin or provincial boundaries, to monitor water levels and flow rates. Projects supplying rural or urban drinking water should also monitor water quality and aquatic ecology.

(6) Other Types of Projects

Groundwater source projects should establish monitoring stations for water levels, quality, and extraction volumes. Large and particularly important medium-sized sluices should establish hydrological stations to monitor water levels and flow rates, with sediment monitoring in sediment-laden rivers. Other medium-sized sluices should have water level stations. Water ecological restoration projects should establish water quality and ecology monitoring stations as needed, tracking parameters such as water levels, flow rates, temperature, and habitat conditions. Lake restoration projects should establish automatic water level and quality monitoring stations.

3. Work Requirements

(1) Strict Design Standards for Supporting Hydrological Facilities

When preparing pre-construction technical documents for new, renovated, expanded, or reinforced water conservancy projects, supporting hydrological facilities must be integrated into the overall project layout. Designs should meet operational needs while serving basin and regional requirements, adhering to standards such as Compilation Regulations for Feasibility Study Reports of Water Resources and Hydropower Projects (SL/T618-2021), Standards for Hydrological Infrastructure and Technical Equipment (SL/T276-2022), and Hydrological Monitoring Data Communication Protocol (SL651-2014). Priority should be given to automated monitoring and real-time transmission technologies.

Reviewing authorities should verify whether hydrological facility designs comply with technical standards. Existing and ongoing projects requiring additional hydrological facilities must follow approval procedures for hydrological station establishment or adjustment.

(2) Standardized Construction of Supporting Hydrological Facilities

Supporting hydrological facilities should be constructed and completed simultaneously with the main project, with unified acceptance procedures following Hydrological Facility Project Acceptance Management Measures. For existing projects, completion acceptance is organized by the project management unit or its superior authority, with results reported to basin or provincial hydrological agencies.

(3) Ensuring Sustainable Operation of Supporting Hydrological Facilities

Water conservancy project management units are responsible for the operation and maintenance of supporting hydrological facilities, ensuring adequate funding and compliance with hydrological agency guidance. Monitoring data should be promptly reported and archived, with information integrated into hydrological data platforms.

Outsourcing operation and maintenance to professional institutions is encouraged. Basin and local water authorities should oversee facility operations, integrating them into regional hydrological monitoring and forecasting systems to enhance overall capabilities.

4. Safeguard Measures

(1) Strengthening Organizational Leadership

Basin management agencies and provincial water authorities should treat supporting hydrological facility construction as a key task in modernizing water infrastructure. Clear responsibilities should be assigned among planning, finance, construction, operation, and hydrological departments, with coordination to secure funding for construction and maintenance.

(2) Improving Standard Systems

Enhance hydrological station network standards to optimize layout and functionality, promoting automation, digitization, and intelligence. Provincial water authorities should issue local implementation guidelines based on actual conditions.

(3) Enhancing Supervision and Guidance

Increase oversight of water conservancy project construction and operation units to ensure funding for hydrological facilities. Hydrological agencies should provide technical training and guidance, helping project management units establish sound operational systems and professional teams for long-term effectiveness.

Reposted from the official WeChat account of the Ministry of Water Resources, "China Water Resources."