Political Ecology Analysis of Urban River Management System

This chapter evaluates the roles and effectiveness of various actors in urban river management system using political ecology approach. The actors engaged in broad water management system in China, especially the governmental agencies, are firstly explored, and the power relations at various spatial and temporal scales are reviewed. Then, the chapter focuses on the effective actors and their power relation variations in urban river management, with further investigation of practices in Shenzhen, Foshan and Zhaoqing. The function relations of various water-related departments within government are further studied, identifying the overlap and gap among these functions as well as the discrepancy existing in the spatial dimension of different administrative jurisdictions. River Chief System is a new practice of urban river management, aiming to strengthen the collaboration among departments through the appointment of district and township heads as river chiefs, and its achievements and weaknesses are then discussed.