Water environment collaborative governance policy in the Yangtze River Delta

Water environment collaborative governance is an important policy agenda during the Yangtze River Delta integration. Based on collaborative theory and policy value theory, this essay finds 144 water environment collaborative governance policies in the region from 2007 to 2022. It utilizes a policy collaborative model to discuss the water environment collaborative governance state at the regional and provincial levels in this region. Results show that 87.5% of water environment collaborative governance policies are enacted by local government in the region in this period, the main policy aims of which are water resource protection and wastewater pollution control. More policy attention will need to be paid to water environment restoration and off-office auditing of cadres. While administration policies and legal interventions are the main policy levers, economic policies and personal policies are relatively underused. Policy elements are significantly diversified at the provincial level in the region. In response to the findings above, this essay offers advice to improve water environment collaborative governance in the Yangtze River Delta region on four aspects: giving local governments full discretion in wastewater pollution treatment; giving full play of the water pollution control policies' value; adopting differentiated water pollution control policies; and strategies among the local government in the region, exerting policy stability.