A comprehensive benefit evaluation for the Xiangjiang River basin rehabilitation project.

The rehabilitation project of the Xiangjiang River basin, the main economic region of Hunan province in the central China, was implemented to solve the problems of increasing floods, droughts and water pollution. The river basin rehabilitation project mainly includes reservoir construction, embankment reinforcement, and vegetation and water environment protection, which are closely related to flood control, hydroelectric generation, irrigation, navigation, resettlement and aquatic ecology. To quantify the benefits and impacts of the project and to also evaluate its advantages and weaknesses, this paper proposes a hierarchical assessment index system that considers flood control, the social economy and ecological environment. Each index of the different categories within the index system was normalized and its weight was determined through an information entropy-based assessment method, including both the subjective and the objective assessments. The proposed assessment index system was used to evaluate the positive and negative impacts of the basin treatment project on flood control, the social economy and the ecological environment. The evaluation results indicate that the basin treatment project enhanced the flood control capability, boosted socio-economic development of the region and improved the ecological environment of the basin.