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Disaster Risks and Resilience in Water Conservancy Projects
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Disaster Risks and Resilience in Water Conservancy Projects

A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Hydraulics and Hydrodynamics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (25 March 2026) | Viewed by 1777

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Xin Zhao

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
State Key Laboratory of Hydraulic Engineering Intelligent Construction and Operation, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China
Interests: hydraulics; ice–water dynamics; operational simulation, scheduling, and control of large-scale water conveyance systems; inter-regional water transfer engineering; ice period scheduling and risk management in cold-region water projects; ecological security in water resource planning and management
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Water conservancy projects play a vital role in water supply, irrigation, and flood control, but are susceptible to various natural and operational hazards. In cold regions, ice-related disasters such as channel icing and ice jams can obstruct flow and damage structures. Geological hazards—including landslides, settlement, and rockfalls—threaten structural integrity, especially in mountainous or reservoir areas. Hydro-meteorological events like floods, droughts, and extreme temperatures further challenge safe operations. Operational failures (e.g., equipment malfunction or mismanagement) and human-induced incidents (e.g., illegal water use) can disrupt system functions. Additionally, environmental risks such as eutrophication and downstream ecological degradation may arise from poor flow management or over-diversion. Comprehensive risk assessment, adaptive design, and real-time monitoring are essential for ensuring the safety and sustainability of water projects.

This Special Issue of Water focuses on research related to the prevention, prediction, and mitigation of disasters in water conservancy projects.

Dr. Xin Zhao
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • water conservancy projects
  • disaster prevention
  • ice-related hazards
  • geological risks
  • hydro-meteorological events
  • operational failures
  • environmental impact
  • risk assessment and monitoring

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

18 pages, 4582 KB  
Article
Experimental Research on Hydraulic Characteristics of the Stilling Basin with Sudden Expansion and Drop Sill
by Shuning Li, Hongmei Zhang, Mingxu Sun and Xue Zhang
Water 2026, 18(5), 576; https://doi.org/10.3390/w18050576 - 27 Feb 2026
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 394
Abstract
Stilling basins are critical energy-dissipating structures in high-head hydraulic projects, yet conventional stilling basins often face challenges of insufficient energy dissipation and excessive bottom pressure under high water head and large unit discharge conditions. The integration of sudden expansion and drop sill into [...] Read more.
Stilling basins are critical energy-dissipating structures in high-head hydraulic projects, yet conventional stilling basins often face challenges of insufficient energy dissipation and excessive bottom pressure under high water head and large unit discharge conditions. The integration of sudden expansion and drop sill into stilling basin design has emerged as a potential solution, but its hydraulic characteristics and the specific impact of sudden expansion remain inadequately quantified and understood. To address this research gap, this study experimentally investigates the hydraulic performance of stilling basins with sudden expansion and drop sill, conducting physical model tests on nine design schemes that contrast basins with and without sudden expansion. The tests measure time-averaged pressure, fluctuating pressure, and aeration concentration at key positions of the basin floor. The results demonstrate that the drop sill stilling basin with sudden expansion is technically feasible for application under conditions of high water head and large unit discharge. In the direction perpendicular to the flow, the distributions of time-averaged pressure, fluctuating pressure, and aeration concentration are non-uniform, generally exhibiting a decreasing trend in the order of the 1/4 centerline, chute extension line, 1/2 centerline, and near-sidewall line. Specifically, the time-averaged pressure, fluctuating pressure, and aeration concentration at the bottom of the sudden-expansion basin are, respectively, lower than those of the non-sudden-expansion basin. Notably, the primary protection zones of the sudden-expansion and drop sill stilling basin are situated between the chute extension line and the 1/4 centerline, as well as in the region ranging from the drop sill to 0.4l (with l denoting the stilling basin length). These findings verify that sudden expansion significantly modifies the hydraulic characteristics of stilling basins by reducing pressure and aeration concentration in key areas, and further provide quantitative design parameters and theoretical support for the optimization of sudden-expansion and drop sill stilling basins in high-head hydraulic engineering projects. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Disaster Risks and Resilience in Water Conservancy Projects)
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18 pages, 7354 KB  
Article
Experimental Study on the Mechanism of Overtopping Failure and Breach Development in Homogeneous Earth Dams
by Peisheng Yang, Fugang Xu, Xixi Ye, Folin Li, Xiaohua Xu, Yang Wu and Lingyu Ouyang
Water 2025, 17(23), 3352; https://doi.org/10.3390/w17233352 - 23 Nov 2025
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1003
Abstract
According to statistics, between 1954 and 2021, China experienced 3558 dam failures in reservoirs, with flood overtopping accounting for 51.04% of these incidents. Once an earth-rock dam fails, it not only directly threatens the lives and property of surrounding residents and disrupts normal [...] Read more.
According to statistics, between 1954 and 2021, China experienced 3558 dam failures in reservoirs, with flood overtopping accounting for 51.04% of these incidents. Once an earth-rock dam fails, it not only directly threatens the lives and property of surrounding residents and disrupts normal living order, but also damages infrastructure such as farmland, transportation, and power systems, resulting in enormous economic losses. To investigate the mechanisms of overtopping failure and breach evolution in homogeneous earthen embankments during flood seasons, this study conducted seven sets of laboratory model tests with the Changkai Embankment in Fuzhou City, Jiangxi Province, as a prototype. The tests considered various operational conditions, including different crest widths, embankment heights, channel water depths, and river flow velocities. The test results are as follows: Overtopping failure of earth embankments can be categorised into three distinct stages. The breach formation process can be categorised into three stages: vertical erosion (stage I), breach expansion (stage II) and breach stabilisation (stage III). River water levels and inflow rates were identified as pivotal factors influencing the final morphology of the breach and the flow velocity within it. Conversely, the height of the dike was found to have little influence on the shape of the breach and the flow velocity. The breach width ranges from 6 cm to 12 cm. An increase in water depth, corresponding to a greater difference in water levels on both sides of the river, has been observed to result in a deeper breach and faster widening rate. Elevated water levels have been shown to increase the potential energy of the water, which is subsequently converted into greater kinetic energy during breach formation. This, in turn, increases the flow velocity at the breach. However, a negative correlation has been observed between inflow velocity and flow at the breach. This paper combines the material properties of the embankment to discuss the overtopping failure mechanism and the breach evolution law of homogeneous earth embankments. This provides a basis for preventing and controlling embankment failure disasters. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Disaster Risks and Resilience in Water Conservancy Projects)
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