Opportunities and challenges of interdisciplinarity in river water environmental ethics and integrated river basin management

This paper examines the ethical issues of water environment in the context of river management in practical engineering and technological applications. In particular, three important issues are discussed in this paper referring to two actual engineering cases in ancient and modern China, that is, the construction of ancient Dujiangyan irrigation project in Sichuan, China, and the modern practice of integrated operation of flood control and pollution prevention in Huai River Basin. The three issues include how to consider the trade-offs between flood control and irrigation, how to balance flood control and contamination prevention related to sudden water pollution incident, and how to ensure the protection of water environments and ecology in rivers under the grand challenges of natural environmental changes and high-intensity human activities. Finally, this paper concludes by emphasizing the future development of water environmental ethics and its interdisciplinary integration with modern science & technology in smart river management in China. © 2024 The Authors. River published by Wiley-VCH GmbH on behalf of China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research (IWHR).