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.

Cemented sand and gravel (CSG) has a wide range of applications in dam construction, and its properties are between rockfill and roller compacted concrete (RCC). A difference in gel content will result in a variance in CSG’s structure and mechanical properties. To investigate the intricate structural mechanical properties of CSG, this study conducted a series of laboratory tests and associated discrete element analyses. Accordingly, the evolution law of the strength parameters of CSG is explored and a statistical damage constitutive model suitable for CSG is established. The main contributions of this study are as follows: (1) The failure mechanism of the CSG was described from the microscopic level, and the evolution law of the strength parameter cohesion and friction angle of the CSG was analyzed and summarized. (2) Based on the particle flow model, the energy development law and the spatiotemporal distribution law of acoustic emission (AE) provide illustrations of the strain hardening–softening transition features and the interaction between cohesion and friction of CSG. (3) The evolution function between the strength parameter and the strain softening parameter was built, and the critical strain softening parameter was determined by the microcrack evolution law of the particle flow model. (4) The accuracy of the evolution curve was confirmed by comparing it to experimental results. (5) Based on the relationship between cohesion loss and material damage, a statistical damage constitutive model was developed using the improved Mohr–Coulomb strength criterion as the micro strength function. The constitutive model can accurately describe the stress–strain curves of CSG with different gel content. Furthermore, the model reflects the strain hardening–softening properties of CSG and reveals the relationship between the weakening of cohesion and material damage at the microscopic level. These findings provide valuable guidelines for investigating the damage laws and microcosmic failure features of CSG and other relevant materials.

Human factors are introduced into the dam risk analysis method to improve the existing dam risk management theory. This study constructs the path of human factor failure in dam collapse, explores the failure pattern of each node, and obtains the performance shaping factors (PSFs) therein. The resulting model was combined with a Bayesian network, and sensitivity analysis was performed using entropy reduction. The study obtained a human factor failure pathway consisting of four components: monitoring and awareness, state diagnosis, plan formulation and operation execution. Additionally, a PSFs set contains five factors: operator, technology, organization, environment, and task. Operator factors in a BN (Bayesian network) are the most sensitive, while the deeper causes are failures in organizational and managerial factors. The results show that the model can depict the relationship between the factors, explicitly measure the failure probability quantitatively, and identify the causes of high impact for risk control. Governments should improve the significance of the human factor in the dam project, constantly strengthen the safety culture of the organization’s communications, and enhance the psychological quality and professional skills of management personnel through training. This study provides valuable guidelines for the human reliability analysis on dam failure, which has implications for the theoretical research and engineering practice of reservoir dam safety and management.

The basin economy is essential in China’s high-quality development, which brings prodigious economic and social benefits. However, high industrialization and urbanization led to a significant escalation in water pollution within basins. The achievement of synergistic control of water environment pollution at the basin scale has emerged as a primary goal for governmental departments in developing environmental policies. This study constructs a “four-in-one” basin’s water environment regulation system comprising four categories: total, quality, project, and governance. Further, the spatial spillover effects of water environment pollution control in 27 Chinese provincial-level administrative regions spanning key river basins were analyzed. This study aims to provide evidence from China on the transfer of water pollution in basins worldwide. The results indicate the following conclusions: (1) A consistent upward trend in the environmental regulations and water environment pollution indexes across all provinces in the basin. Compared to 2006, in 2018, the mean value of the basin environmental regulation index was 0.21, which is an increase of 23.5%, and the mean value of the water environmental pollution index was 0.83, which is an increase of 29.7%. (2) Whether in the basin’s upper, middle, or lower reaches, the relationship between environmental regulations and water pollution follows a “U”-shaped pattern, with thresholds of 0.318, 0.331, and 0.390, respectively. (3) Under the neighbor weight matrix and water flow distance weight matrix, the impact coefficient of the water environment pollution index on the surrounding areas is significantly positive, implying that the implementation of local environmental policies will radiate to the neighboring areas in the short term and bring positive governance effects. (4) Regarding the time-lag effect, it is observed that the lag term associated with the water environment pollution index exhibits a statistically significant positive relationship. This finding suggests that the pollution of the water environment within the basin follows a cumulative and continuous pattern. (5) It is noted that long-term environmental regulation measures do not contribute favorably to the amelioration of water pollution in the neighboring regions. This implies the presence of a characteristic neighboring avoidance effect.