Abstract:

Regional environmental governance is a typical cross-border problem，but under the administration model based on administrative district，a single local government cannot effectively govern it. There is a phenomenon of “weak willingness and low efficiency” in the water environmental governance in the Yangtze River Delta region, and the vertical embeddedness of the central government has promoted the cooperation between local governments in the Yangtze River Delta region and improved the efficiency of water environmental governance. Firstly，under the background of authoritative system，the central government promotes cooperation among local governments by strengthening the concept of environmental protection and setting up strategic planning. Secondly，in addition to the direct goal setting，the central government has also effectively prevented the fragmentation of governance among local governments in the river basin through institutional setting（legalization of unified management institutions），which also provides the premise and bridge for the cooperation among local governments. Finally，the central government alleviates the conflict of interest between local governments，through the continuous improvement of the constraint and incentive compensation mechanism，in order to ensure the cooperation between local governments in the governance of basin environmental problems. The research shows that the key to promoting the local collaborative governance of cross administrative region environmental problems is to grasp the reasonable vertical embedding mode，time and degree.

Key words: the institutional collective action, the vertical embeddedness of the central government, local government cooperation, Yangtze River Delta, regional environment governance