Challenges and prospects of safe,ecological,and smart reservoir and dam construction
ZHOU Chuangbing
XIANG Yan
YAO Chi
SHENG Jinbao
Abstract：China has established the world's largest reservoir and dam system,in which reservoirs and dams play irreplaceable roles in flood control,power generation,navigation,and water supply.However,a large number of projects constructed in the early stages feature long service life and insufficient adaptability to changes in operating environments and functional requirements.Floods exceeding design standards increase the risk of earth dam failure,while rapid urbanization poses greater potential risk to the reservoirs and dams described as"a basin of water over cities".Meanwhile,reservoir sedimentation,ecological and environmental influences,and unconventional safety risks pose severe challenges.The concepts of safe dams,ecological dams,and smart dams represent the new development philosophy for addressing the emerging challenges,possessing their inherent historical,theoretical,and practical logic.From a safety perspective,it is necessary to expand from traditional engineering safety to system safety level,and enhance risk prevention and control capacity via functional assessment,resilience improvement,and risk mitigation and reinforcement.From the ecological perspective,both engineering and non-engineering measures are required to minimize the adverse effect of projects on river ecosystems,while proactively giving play to the positive ecological benefits of reservoirs and dams,such as flood control and disaster reduction,and water-sediment regulation.From the intelligence perspective,greater efforts should be made to achieve technological breakthroughs in comprehensive perception,intelligent operation and maintenance,intelligent diagnosis,and autonomous decision-making of reservoirs and dams,and digital twin reservoir-dam systems should be established to enable the digital and intelligent management of reservoirs and dams throughout the entire life cycle.In the future,from the strategic height of ensuring national water security,it is necessary to coordinate the construction,operation,and maintenance of safe,ecological,and smart reservoirs and dams to provide a solid foundation for the construction of basin flood control projects,the development of national water networks,and the restoration of river and lake ecosystems.
Keywords：damsafetyecologysmartreservoir and dam projectdigital twin
Publication Date：2026-01-30
Online Publishing Date：2026-03-12(First online date of this platform, not the publication date of the document)
Pages：10( 1-10 )