Abstract: The fundamental reason why the flood limit level redesign is difficult to be widely used in practice lies in the inequality of responsibilities, rights and interests－the flood control authorized department bears the responsibility, the flood storage and detention area suffers the risks, and the reservoir owner takes the benefits. To achieve a certain equality through reservoir operation for flood control based on the optimized flood limit level, this paper constructs a basin flood control fund model incorporating three major factors－reservoir benefit increase, flood insurance paid by the residents in the flood storage and detention area, and start-up fund invested by the state. Application of this model to the middle and lower Hanjiang River shows the investment proportion for reservoir benefit increase is a key factor in the sustainable operation of the flood control fund. We recommend that a flood control fund can be constructed by summing up three parts: 50% of the reservoir benefit increase, the flood insurance, and a state start-up fund of 10 billion yuan. A mechanism of flood control fund operating should be built to promote risk sharing and benefit sharing equality, implement optimal schemes based on the flood limit water level, and realize sustainable basin development.

Key words: flood control fund, flood insurance, sustainable development goal, downstream Hanjiang River basin