Acknowledgment to the Reviewers of Journal of Environmental & Earth Sciences in 2025
2026-02-06
Bridging the Gap: How Water Conservancy Projects Shape a Greener Future
Authors
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Jing Zhang
School of Water Conservancy Engineering, Hunan Polytechnic of Water Resources and Electric Power, Changsha 410131, China
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Qinghe Zeng
Sinohydro Engineering Bureau 8 Co., Ltd., Changsha 410004, China
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.30564/jees.v8i8.13089Abstract
Projects on water conservation are gaining prominence as the primary intervention of climate adaptation, low-carbon development, and ecosystem restoration. However, their sustainability performance is exceptionally situational, guided by the basin hydrology, sediment interactions, operating regulations, and governmental capacity. This review summarizes the interdisciplinary evidence of how water conservation projects can be used to achieve a cleaner future by reducing the negative externalities, such as dams and reservoirs, irrigation and conveyance systems, flood control structures, managed aquifer recharge, and hybrid gray-green strategies. We establish an integrative model between drivers, interventions, system reactions, and results along four dimensions: environmental integrity, social equity, economic performance, and resilience to climate non-stationarity. Synthesis reveals that, co-benefits of scoring well, a fully functioning project operates in an adaptable way, evaluated on a basin level, and in conjunction with demand management and land-use planning. In contrast, net harms are mainly probable in the context of the flow regulation, where biodiversity is eroded due to flow fragmentation, downstream exposure to sediment trapping, water quality reduction due to residence-time effects, and salinization induced by irrigation, and the unequal distribution of benefits because of weak procedural protection. To address these gaps, the priority should be placed on retrofit and re-operation of the old assets, environmental flows, and sediment-conscious operation, scaling nature-based and hybrid solutions, and using digital monitoring and forecast-informed operations with transparent and responsible rules of decision-making. Lastly, the review identifies gaps in research, including standardized indicators, long-term monitoring, and causal assessment, and governance changes, and financing tools that incentivize proven sustainability performance as opposed to capacity building.
Keywords:
Water Conservancy; Sustainability Transitions; Gray-Green Infrastructure; Climate Resilience; Environmental JusticeReferences
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Zhang, J., & Zeng, Q. (2026). Bridging the Gap: How Water Conservancy Projects Shape a Greener Future. Journal of Environmental & Earth Sciences, 8(8), 1037–1060. https://doi.org/10.30564/jees.v8i8.13089
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Copyright © 2026 Jing Zhang, Qinghe Zeng
This is an open access article under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0) License.
