China to accelerate digital transformation of water management

China will accelerate the digital transformation of water resources management during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-30), building on major advances in infrastructure, disaster prevention and water conservation over the past five years, a senior water official said on Saturday.

Yu Qiyang, chief planner of the Ministry of Water Resources, made the remarks at the IWHR Water Science Conference, held at the China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research in Beijing.

The 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25) saw a substantial and sustained increase in water conservancy investment, Yu said. China completed 5.68 trillion yuan in water conservancy investment during the period, with annual investment exceeding 1 trillion yuan over four years from 2022 to 2025.

The total was about 2.8 times the investment made during the 12th Five-Year Plan period and 1.6 times that of the 13th Five-Year Plan period, providing strong financial support for the country's water resources development, he added.

He said China has also made progress in beefing up its capacity to prevent floods and droughts, expanding the national water network and enhancing water conservation.

Thanks to the efforts to reinforce reservoirs with safety risks, improve infrastructure in small and medium-sized rivers and other flood control measures, he said the average annual direct economic losses caused by floods and droughts fell from 0.28 percent of GDP during the previous five-year period to 0.17 percent, Yu said.

Water consumption per 10,000 yuan of GDP and per 10,000 yuan of industrial value added fell by 21.4 percent and 29 percent, respectively, from levels at the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan period, he disclosed.

Looking ahead, Yu outlined eight trends that he believes will shape water development during the next five years, including a more interconnected national water network, increasingly digital regulation, greener development, more precise flood control and more efficient water use.

Emphasizing on digitalization, he highlighted that emerging technologies are reshaping how water infrastructure is monitored, operated and regulated.

"We are now in the era of digital intelligence. Artificial intelligence is rapidly moving from the digital world into the physical world and profoundly reshaping the development patterns, operating models and technological systems of different sectors," Yu said.

China has already accelerated the development of an integrated monitoring and sensing system covering the sky, air, land, water and water projects. The Ministry of Water Resources has collected information on 26 million elements across 72 categories of physical water-related objects in the past five years, laying a data foundation for digital management.

During the next five years, efforts should focus on improving data collection and sharing, strengthening data governance and better connecting real-time monitoring with professional water models, Yu said. General-purpose artificial intelligence models and specialized water-sector models should be developed in parallel and improved through practical applications.

He also called for coordinated development of digital twins for river basins, the national water network and individual water projects. Such systems could improve forecasting, early warning, scenario simulation and contingency planning, enabling authorities to identify risks earlier and make more precise decisions on flood control, water allocation and infrastructure operation.