Progress, problems and suggestions for countermeasures on the implementation of Water Ecological Environmental Protection Planning for Key River Basins in the Yangtze River Basin

The Yangtze River, the largest river in China, traverses the country from west to east and is renowned as the Golden Waterway. It holds a highly significant strategic position in both the socio-economic development and ecological environmental protection of China. The Water Ecological Environmental Protection Planning for Key River Basins serves as the guideline for local governments at all levels in the watershed to carry out water ecological environmental protection and restoration practices during the 14^th Five-Year Plan Period, and is also a powerful tool to promote the continuous improvement of water ecological environment in the watershed. Both major indicators and key tasks were considered, a combination of quantitative and qualitative evaluation methods were used to objectively assess the implementation of the planning in the Yangtze River Basin. The evaluation results show that, the 11 major indicators for the Yangtze River Basin specified in the planning are generally progressing smoothly, However, three expected indicators, including the assessment of aquatic biological integrity index, restoration of river and lake ecological buffer zones, and the number of water bodies reproducing indigenous aquatic plants, are lagging behind the expected timeline; The key tasks proposed in the planning have been pushed forward steadily, but there are still outstanding problems, such as unstable improvements in water environment quality in some regions, weak links in the standard of water environmental governance, lack of continuous efforts in water ecological protection, unresolved water resource constraints in some areas, high pressure on preventing water environmental risks, and incomplete mechanism for ensuring the planning's effective implementation. Some countermeasures on strengthening the assessment of planning objectives, deepening the collaborative governance system of “three-water overall planning”, and promoting systematic protection of key river basins are suggested. The results of the study can provide ideas and references for the preparation of the 15^th Five-Year Planning for water ecological environmental protection in the Yangtze River Basin.