Water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) was first
introduced from South America into China as a good
fodder plant in 1901, and had become a serious en-
vironmental problem in China by the early 21st cen-
tury (Ding et al., 2001). Of the total loss of USD 7
billion brought about by foreign weed species in
China, water hyacinth occupies the major proportion.
The large coverage of this weed on water would re-
duce sunlight penetration and lower oxygen content
in water, which has a great impact on water
eco-system, thus the local species would be decreased.
For example, 60% local species living in Dianchi
Lake in Yunnan Province was died out by the inva-
sion of water hyacinth. The output of fishes and other
water foods would be reduced in a large scope. Many
water areas would be difficult to ship and many canals
would have problems for irrigation and drainage. In
addition, the presence of water hyacinth would be
negative for sightseeing. In 18 provinces or cities
infected by water hyacinth, Shanghai is a typical area.
Only in 2002, water hyacinth of 1.68 million tons was
salvaged in Huangpujiang River and other water areas
in Shanghai and more than USD 10 million was spent
in a year. From 2002 to now, and Shanghai govern-
ment has invested more than USD 1.2 million on the
project of integrated management on water hyacinth.
Some important results were obtained and in use. This
paper focused on our research results and the inte-
grated management strategy on water hyacinth in
China