Rivers are among the oldest and most dynamic natural systems on Earth. They shape landscapes, nurture civilizations, and connect societies. In today's world, rivers are under unprecedented pressure—from climate change and rapid urbanization to ecological degradation and growing demands for water security—making the questions of how to understand rivers, govern rivers, and coexist with rivers central to sustainable development. China has recently articulated a National River Strategy (General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, 2025), elevating river protection and governance to a long-term national framework that integrates water security, ecological security, cultural heritage, and governance modernization. The intellectual foundations and methodological implications of this strategy offer insights of broad international relevance. As an international journal dedicated to advancing water science and human–water relations, River considers this a critical moment that calls for careful reflection and active academic engagement. At its core, China's National River Strategy adheres to the guiding principles of prioritizing water conservation, balancing spatial distribution, adopting systematic approaches and leveraging the roles of both government and market. It emphasizes river protection as the foundation and river governance as the means, regards the river basin as the integral unit, and promotes the coordinated management of water-related disasters, rational use of water resources, protection and restoration of water ecology and environment as well as inheritance and development of water culture. In the meantime, the institutional frameworks for river protection shall be strengthened, and a governance model shall be established in which rivers nourish the people, the people protect the rivers, and humans and rivers coexist in harmony. These principles outline a comprehensive vision for river protection and governance, which can be further understood through interrelated dimensions that reflect shared challenges and values globally. First, ensuring river safety requires building a modern, basin-based flood risk management system. Across the world, climate change is reshaping flood regimes, with more frequent extreme rainfall, compound hazards, and cascading impacts (Rogers et al., 2025). Ensuring river safety therefore depends not only on individual structures, but on an integrated system that coordinates water storage, detention, discharge, and drainage across entire basins. A modern approach emphasizes the combined role of reservoirs, levees, river channels, flood detention areas, and urban drainage networks, supported by real-time monitoring, forecasting, early warning, and contingency planning. Equally important is proactive risk prevention through floodplain management, spatial planning, and the reduction of exposure of people and assets in high-risk zones. Such a transition reflects a shift from passive defense to anticipatory and preventive governance. At River, we support research that advances scientific understanding and practical solutions for basin-scale flood risk governance and long-term river stability. Second, strengthening water conservation and promoting efficient and rational water use are fundamental to the overall and long-term water security. Growing competition among domestic, agricultural, industrial, and ecological demands has made water scarcity a systematic challenge in many countries and regions (Mekonnen & Hoekstra, 2016). Addressing this challenge requires a shift from ever-expanding supply to managing demand through rigid constraints, efficiency improvement, and optimized allocation. Key elements include promoting water-saving technologies, enhancing recycling and reuse, utilizing both conventional and unconventional water sources, and aligning water allocation with land-use and development planning. Such approaches reflect a broader recognition that economic and social development must operate within the limits of water availability. Third, protecting river ecosystems is essential to maintaining the vitality and integrity of river systems. Healthy rivers depend on well-maintained ecological flows, connected habitats, stable channel morphology, and functioning source-to-mouth processes. Yet globally, many rivers suffer from flow depletion, habitat fragmentation, and ecological degradation (Grill et al., 2019). Effective protection therefore requires basin-wide, designated strategies for different climatic and hydrological contexts, and coordinated management of river channels, floodplains, and riparian zones. Restoring rivers as living systems calls for integrating ecological objectives into water regulation, infrastructure operation, and land management. Fourth, continuously improving river water quality is a prerequisite for public health and ecological sustainability. Water quality degradation remains a widespread challenge driven by point-source discharges, diffuse pollution, and legacy contamination (Richardson & Ternes, 2022). Water quality improvement depends on controlling pollution at its sources, strengthening monitoring and assessment, and combining water quality objectives with water quantity. Protecting drinking water source areas, safeguarding upstream catchments, and reducing risks along supply pathways are critical components of this effort. Moving towards basin-level prevention of water pollution, rather than isolated treatment, reflects an evolution from fragmented to holistic thinking in remediation and environmental governance. Fifth, sustaining rivers also requires sustaining the cultures that have grown alongside them. Rivers are not merely natural entities but carriers of civilization that preserve collective memory, identity, and shared values. By introducing cultural dimensions into river governance, the scope of water science is expanded to encompass history, anthropology, literature, and the arts. Cultural recognition strengthens public participation and social legitimacy, providing a deeper-level foundation for river protection. It also helps translate scientific and policy goals into societal consensus and collective action, and drives people to reflect their relations with rivers and nature from the perspective of ethics. At River, we consistently advocate that culture is not an accessory to but the foundation of river governance and an indispensable component of human civilization. The effective implementation of all these priorities ultimately depends on sound institutions and coordinated governance arrangements. Flood safety, water conservation, ecological protection, water quality improvement, and cultural continuity all require governance frameworks that integrate planning, regulation, operation, enforcement, and accountability across entire river basins. As complex systems that cross regions, sectors, and scales, rivers demand stable, coherent, and adaptive institutional architectures capable of coordinating multiple objectives and resolving competing interests (Pahl-Wostl, 2015). Basin-level coordination, clear assignment of responsibilities, legal precautions, and long-term policy mechanisms are therefore essential for translating strategic goals into measurable and accountable actions. Meanwhile, scientific and technological innovation should be embedded within these institutional structures to support informed and transparent decision-making. River pays close attention to river governance practices under diverse institutional contexts and is committed to promoting research that facilitates comparative learning and the evolution of effective governance systems. Finally, we sincerely invite scholars and practitioners worldwide to engage in this discussion from comparative, critical, and pioneering perspectives. River looks forward to interdisciplinary and collaborative contributions that deepen the understanding of rivers as complex socio-physical systems. In an era of global change, River calls for the systematic advancement of water science and technological innovation, not only as an academic pursuit, but as a responsibility toward our shared future.
Peng et al. (Sun,) studied this question.