With the continuous growth of economic water consumption in arid regions, many endorheic rivers and terminal lakes have desiccated. As an important ecological engineering measure, water transport in arid regions has vital ecological significance for protecting the regional ecological environment and delaying desertification. In this study, Qingtu Lake, the terminal lake of Shiyang River, was selected to analyze the ecological effects of water transport by means of remote sensing interpretations and current year field investigations. The results demonstrated that, in July 2018, the water surface had formed and recovered to 5.68 km². Additionally, Qingtu Lake formed a spatial gradient distribution in groundwater depth. The depth increased in gradient from the waterside to the desert edge. There was a significant increase in the overall regional vegetation coverage, which mainly occurred in the water areas because of the extensive growth in Phragmites australis, which reached 10.54 km² in area in 2018. Furthermore, the regional vegetation formed a gradient distribution, which transitioned from hygrophytes to xerophytes. This study can provide guidelines for the protection and restoration of lakes in arid regions.

Water conservancy projects occupy an extremely important status in human development history. Human cognition about water conservancy projects has been in constant evolution along with the changing relationship between humans and nature (water). Based on a literature review, this study provides a systemic summary of the evolution of the human need for water resources and of water conservancy projects, as well as the equilibrium between humans and nature (river and lake ecosystems). More importantly, the transformation of cognition concerning the governance of nature and river and lake ecosystems is reviewed. Taking the perspective of modern rationalism on water conservancy projects, four major changes in human cognition are identified. Further, the most salient water-related issues arising from China’s largest freshwater lake, Poyang Lake, are analyzed and the history and predicament of its governance are described. This is accompanied by a discussion on the countermeasures. Finally, based on the evolution of the human–water relationship and cognitive transformation concerning water conservancy projects, several suggestions are proposed for the planned construction of the Poyang Lake Hydraulic Project. The conclusions of this paper shed new light on the principles of water governance and water conservancy project construction in a new era that has witnessed a growing conflict between socioeconomic development and the water environment. Our suggestions are also valuable for the governance of Poyang Lake.

Thorough understanding of the evolution processes and drivers behind the formation of and changes in land use and land cover (LULC) is essential for maintaining the balance between humans and fragile nature in arid regions. This quantitative driving analysis provides in-depth insight into the driving mechanisms behind the formation of and changes in LULC through a case study of the Shiyang River Basin in Northwest China. Based on land use, meteorological, topographic, and socioeconomic data from 2000 to 2018 (2000, 2005, 2010, 2015, and 2018), this study employed land use transfer matrices and the GeoDetector model to explore the evolution and driving forces behind the formation of and variations in the LULC patterns. The results demonstrated that anthropic factors mainly drove the spatial distributions of cropland and settlement. The spatial distributions of the forest, grassland, and bare land were determined by the mutual influence of natural and anthropic factors. The LULC patterns exhibited consequential variations throughout the study period. Through the occupation of the surrounding cropland and grassland, urbanization expanded rapidly. The ecological environment had been improved, but there were still considerable areas of degraded land, characterized by the grassland degradation downstream and the forest degradation upstream. Geographical differentiation was the primary driver for the transformation of bare land to grassland. The main driving forces behind urban expansion and forest loss were socioeconomic development and geographical differentiation. The degree of a certain LULC change varied among different levels of its driving factor. This research can provide scientific advice for administrators and policymakers to formulate scientific, rational, and targeted land use planning and policies in the future to achieve the sustainable development of endorheic river basins.