Two decades of development in eco-hydraulic engineering

Since the theoretical framework of eco-hydraulic engineering was first proposed by DONG Zheren in 2003， China has achieved substantial progress in both research and practice， fundamentally establishing a relatively comprehensive disciplinary system. This paper systematically summarizes the main progress of eco-hydraulic engineering over the past two decades from three aspects： development history， theoretical system and technical methods， and practical applications， reflecting its evolution from the initial stage to the current state of continuous improvement. Eco-hydraulic engineering has initiated a new interdisciplinary research paradigm integrating engineering and ecology， forming a complete methodological system encompassing theoretical framework， model methods， basic principles， technical tools， and management platforms. It has developed models for analyzing the ecological impact mechanism of water conservancy and hydropower projects， established a multi-scale investigation and evaluation method for all elements of aquatic ecosystems， constructed a matrix-based river ecological condition classification system， formulated planning and design principles and technical systems for aquatic ecological restoration， developed a toolbox for stereoscopic and naturalized ecological restoration of river corridors， proposed reservoir operation methods that take ecological protection into account， created technologies for improving the connectivity of river and lake systems， and built an adaptive management decision support system for river ecological restoration. The future development of eco-hydraulic engineering is expected to further deepen research and practice in aspects such as intelligentization， resilience， and long-term effectiveness. Eco-hydraulic engineering provides theoretical tools and methodological support for mitigating the adverse ecological effects associated with traditional hydraulic engineering， and is of great significance for promoting harmonious coexistence between humans and rivers.