Integrated urban and rural water affairs management reform in China: Affecting factors

The institutional evolution is often induced by some factors. This paper intends to analyze the affecting factors in integrated urban and rural water affairs management reform in China. The integrated urban and rural water affairs management reform is to restructure the governmental organizational setting in water management by forms of water affair bureau or re-designing functions of current water resources bureau to incorporate part or all functions of resources management, service regulation and environment management in water sector. The analyses selected some natural and socio-economic factors. The results point out that the integrated urban and rural water affairs management reform is a factor-induced institutional evolution. The factors promoting this reform include occasional drought events, higher central water investment percentage; but the data from the urban sector do not provide the support to the reform.