The governance of small watersheds in the water source area of the South-to-North Water Diversion Middle Route Project holds significant strategic importance for ensuring sustained northward flow of clean water from the reservoir. Taking the Maota River small watershed governance project as a case study, this research systematically analyses the progress and effectiveness of technological innovation in promoting watershed management within the framework of six key initiatives. The study finds that the project has achieved notable progress in enhancing water conservation functions, improving incoming water quality, and fostering green industrial transformation through measures such as constructing a new energy vehicle industry chain, implementing micro-power rural wastewater treatment, establishing green factories, and promoting smart system upgrades. However, shortcomings remain in areas like technological investment, monitoring systems, collaborative mechanisms, and public participation. Countermeasures are proposed, including increasing support for green technology research and development and industrial upgrading, building an integrated sky-land-water smart watershed monitoring and management platform, establishing cross-regional and multi-level collaborative governance mechanisms, and improving the policy system and public participation channels for water source protection. This research can provide technological support pathways and policy references for the systematic management and green, low-carbon development of small watersheds in the water source area of the Middle Route Project and other critical ecological function zones.

Xiaodong Tang. Technological Innovation for Source Watershed Governance: A Case Study of the Maota River Basin in the South-to-North Water Diversion Project. Academic Journal of Environment & Earth Science (2026), Vol. 8, Issue 1: 40-45. https://doi.org/10.25236/AJEE.2026.080106.

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