In 1998, the National Development and Reform Commission, formerly the State Development Planning Commission, and the Ministry of Water Resources issued annual water-use quotas and a distribution scheme for the river, as well as the Implementation Regulation for Water Resource Allocation among Provinces in the Huang River Basin. These management policies determined total water withdrawals on the basis of hydrology, the need for sediment transport and other ecological factors, and established annual provincial water withdrawals including a seasonal distribution plan for greater withdrawal in the rainy season than in the dry season.