The Huangshui river basin of Shandong Province, PR China, is an outstanding example for water conflicts arising from fast growing population, industry and agriculture and piecemeal water management measures that can only be solved by an integrated water resources management (IWRM) approach. Overexploitation of water resources has resulted in the intrusion of salt water into the groundwater. Water shortage extremely hampers the development of industry and agriculture as the population's main income source, and pollution impedes ecology and degrades the quality of living. In this German-Chinese joint project, German traditional expertise in water resources management along with novel developments especially pertaining to the EU Water Framework Directive were brought together with research efforts in the coastal region of Shandong Province to fundamentally improve the water resources situation. This volume (10) of the book series "Concepts for sustainable development of a river landscape" contains the results of the Sino-German research project "Sustainable water resources management in the coastal region of Shandong Province, PR China". With a three-level decision support system, strategies and solutions for sustainable water resources development in the study area were developed. Pilot projects and an advanced monitoring system were implemented. The book addresses scientists, officials, authorities and stakeholders interested in solutions for integrated water resources development and management. The base for the BMBF IWRM project was laid in the years 2004/ 2005 within the framework of a pre-project under the auspices of the University of Essen (Prof. Geiger) with the support of Shandong Water Conservancy Research Institute (WCRI; Prof. Wang/ Prof. Zhang). This pre-project was also funded by BMBF on the German side and by MOST on the Chinese side. The proposal for the pre-project was submitted by the Institute of Urban Water Management at the University of Duisburg-Essen. The German company partners in this pre-project, namely DHI-WASY GmbH (Prof. Kaden) and Regierungsbaumeister Schlegel GmbH & Co. KG (Schlegel Consulting Engineers, Mr. Würzberg), contributed to workshops and the formulation of the proposal for a follow-up project, of which this report is a part. This Sino-German project was started in 2008 with the general goal of creating technical and management methods for the development of an IWRM concept suitable for the Huangshui river basin. IWRM is a process promoting the coordinated development and management of water, land and related resources, in order to maximize the resultant economic and social welfare in an equitable manner without compromising the sustainability of vital ecosystems. The project was to bring together long standing German expertise in water management, newer developments (experience with the European Water Framework Directive) and research efforts in the coastal area of Shandong province in order to relieve the desperate water scarcity. After assessment of the present situation and the various abatement measures tried so far, especially to stop salt water intrusion, it was found that the region has a tremendous potential for improvement of the water supply situation by using integrated water management methods. As a study area, Longkou County in the province of Shandong was selected.
