Adaptive governance for sustainable reservoir management: lessons from joint reservoir operation in China's Yangtze River Basin

Since the establishment of the People's Republic of China, the Chinese government has considered water conservation and reservoir management as crucial strategies for economic and social development. Among the initiatives undertaken, reservoir joint operation is a notable innovation in the construction and management of China's water conservation. The Yangtze River Basin, which comprises the largest cascade reservoir system worldwide, has been subjected to over 30 years of practical testing for reservoir joint operation. This has promoted the multi-objective collaborative optimization of China's reservoir group operations, shifting from traditional empirical operations to more modern intelligent operations, demonstrating a high degree of institutional maturity. However, with the advancement of sustainable development, this system continues to encounter challenges owing to changes in the external environment. Therefore, this study focused on adaptive management and sustainable development of the joint operation of reservoir groups in the Yangtze River Basin. In this study, we constructed a three-dimensional analytical framework based on operational objectives, operational management measures, and period using a text analysis method. An adaptive reservoir group joint operation based on a basin-wide (spatial and temporal) system demonstrated enhanced ability to achieve sustainable utilization of water resources in the basin.