Water Resources Flows Related to Urbanization in China: Challenges and Perspectives for Water Management and Urban Development

China has been experiencing rapid urbanization since the reform and open policy launched in 1978, leading to the growth of urban water demands and aggravating water scarcity especially in the new millennium. Accordingly, water resources previously used for agriculture and environmental systems tend to be transferred to urban systems. Limited by the total quantity and frail environments, the patterns of water resources flows among different sectors and regions change obviously. Water related problems induced by rapid urbanization have become one of the key concerns for scientists and governments. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the new features of water resources flows related to urbanization in China, mainly with regard to bidirectional water resources flows between rural and urban areas, environmental and socio-economic systems, real and virtual water flows between the south and north. This paper also considers the socio-economic and environmental challenges which are resulted from water resources flows in such a case, and provides some countermeasures on how to promote water resources to flow healthily and swimmingly, so as to improve the urban development constrained by scarce water resources. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012