Hangzhou has adopted wetland protection and wise use as urban development strategy, highlighting wetland conservation as the pivot of social development planning, established specific agencies for wetland management.

The regulations for Wetland Conservation in Hangzhou and management of Hangzhou Xixi National Wetland Park, the first local regulation in China for wetland park have been promulgated and enacted. Wetland protection indicators, such as wetland area, wetland protection rate, wetland ecological status, etc., have been incorporated in the integrated high-quality development (HQD) evaluation system. The Measure for Implementation of Wetland Protection Eco-Compensation was stipulated.

Hangzhou involved wetlands in its national economic and social development planning and the planning for territory space. The Special Planning on Wetland Protection was prepared, forming a spatial pattern of wetland protection, characterized by “one axis and two belts, two cores and three zones, five sectors”.

The wetland protection action plans were formulated to promote the project of digitalized protection and management for the Ramsar Site. The comprehensive protection projects in West Lake, Xixi, Grand Canal, Xianghu Lake have essentially made Hangzhou an ecological livable city of wetlands. The municipal government and party committee of Hangzhou restored wetlands.