China Establishment of Groundwater Management Center The objective is to support the establishment of a central groundwater center and strengthen the government's groundwater planning and management capacity (including M&E capacity) for sustainable development of its scarce groundwater resources. The project activities include: Component 1. Ground center establishment and capacity building (i).Groundwater Center of MWR This is to support the establishment of a Groundwater Center to be located in the General Institution of Water Resources and Hydropower Planning and Design (GIWP) under the ministry of water resources (MWR), China. The Center operates under the policy guidance of the Department of Water Resources of MWR, and administrative guidance of GIWP. It is expected to become a national Center of Excellence for technology, planning, design standards, and policy of groundwater development and management in China. The IDF Grant is expected to help bring in pertinent international experiences in the course of firming up the Center's detailed mandates. (ii). Training and Capacity Building In order to enhance national groundwater management capacity, training on groundwater policy, monitoring, management practice and technology, etc. will be provided to the various levels groundwater managers including the staff of the groundwater center, and provincial groundwater mangers and planners in China. Limited inputs are expected from international consultants. Component 2.  Mapping of groundwater management 'hot-spots' Based on the completed and ongoing survey and analytical work undertaken by various agencies (water and geology institutes, etc.) in China, management 'hot-spots' of serious groundwater issues (such as significant land subsidence, severe overdraft area, and polluted area) will be identified and mapped out. The key issues of the groundwater management 'hot-spots' will be analyzed and management options for addressing them studied drawing on good practices and experiences worldwide and discussed at a workshop. The main output of this component is an Issue and Option (I&O) Paper. The Grant will provide support to delivery of this paper (supplemented with detailed study reports) including organization of a stakeholder workshop to discuss the paper. Component 3.  Development of institutional framework for groundwater management On the basis of reviewing the existing institutional framework and related study results, especially surrounding groundwater overdraft, in context of the outstanding and emerging issues with groundwater use and management in China, and drawing lessons from the groundwater management experiences of other countries, an institutional framework for groundwater management will be proposed to cover legal, policy, regulation, organizational and technical aspects of groundwater management. Substantial contributions are expected from external experts for this component. Component 4.  Formulation of a groundwater management strategy action program Based on the results of Components 1-3, and government-funded activities: groundwater database/knowledge base, safe yield study, utilization and protection planning, total exploitation control, licensing for exploitation, groundwater function zoning & management, etc, a groundwater management strategy and action program (preferred option with broad consensus) will be formulated for implementation to tackle the key issues identified. The strategy/action program will cover all important aspects of groundwater management: legal, policy, regulation, technical, organizational and financial; it will also include a pilot management program design for significant aquifer(s) or administrative zone(s), including groundwater monitoring and evaluation mechanism. The objective is to strengthen the groundwater planning and management capacity, through support to a groundwater center that is in the process of establishment.