Abstract: Abstract：Reservoir resettlement not only restricts hydropower resources developing process, also gradually
evolves into a serious social problem, and therefore reasonable compensation becomes a focus of solving the
immigration problem. From a view of market economy, this article presents a concept of compensating
immigration that covers three types of compensations, for physical assets, public service elements, and
psychological cost, and develops a calculation method for the compensation of public service elements. This
method evaluates the public service losses caused by resettlement immigration using 16 indicators in total to
quantify the levels of public services: health care, transportation and communication, education and
employment, and living and insurance. Through its application to an analysis on the data of Shiyan and
Jingzhou city from 2000 to 2008, we obtained empirical compensation results for the public service
elements in Hubei province due to the Danjiangkou reservoir resettlement, and verified this compensation
method and the new compensating immigration concept as a useful tool for determination of compensation
level.