Industrial water efficiency is a direct factor affecting industrial water use. It is the key to improve the efficiency of industrial water use in China by analyzing its influencing factors and finding out the spatial distribution rules. This paper selects the Super-SBM model, introduces the non-expected output index to measure the industrial water use efficiency of China’s 31 provinces from 2007 to 2016. And this paper comprehensively analyzes the spatial dynamic evolution of the factors affecting industrial water use efficiency from various aspects, in order to provide a basis for formulating differentiated regional intensive water resource management policies.The results show that: (1) Industrial water in most provinces of China is in an inefficient state, while the high-efficiency center is transferred from east to west; (2) Different influencing factors have different influence on industrial water efficiency. The increase in total water resources, regional GDP, proportion of industrial water use, and R&D investment ratio will have a negative impact on industrial water use efficiency, and industrial water use efficiency will decrease. The regional resident population, urbanization rate, and per capita education expenditure will have a positive impact on industrial water efficiency and promotes it. (3) There are spatial differences between different influencing factors which affect the degree of China’s industrial water use efficiency. The effects of urbanization rate, R&D investment ratio and per capita education expenditure on industrial water use efficiency are relatively concentrated in space. The high-value areas are mainly located in the central and western regions, while the low-value areas are mainly in the eastern coastal regions. The total water resources, the regional GDP, the proportion of industrial water use and the regional resident population show a state of evolution in space. With the time development, the central shift occurs in the high-value and low-value areas.

Establishing a water resources ecological compensation standard model is one of the research hotpots in the current ecological economy. This paper constructs an inter-provincial ecological compensation model of water resources for the Yangtze River economic belt by accounting for the grey water footprint of the eleven provinces/cities in the Yangtze River economic belt from 2007 to 2016. The results indicate:(1)The total grey water footprint of the Yangtze River economic belt in 2007-2016 showed a small fluctuation trend, with the highest proportion of agricultural grey water footprint;(2)The grey water footprint load index of the eleven provinces/cities in the Yangtze River economic belt is roughly divided into five categories, with the high indexes main locate in downstream areas and the low indexes are most in upper and middle Yangtze River; (3) From the perspective of inter-provincial ecological compensation, it could be found, in 2007-2016, some regions such as Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Hunan, and Jiangxi, has always been the areas for receiving ecological compensation, while other areas like Shanghai, Jiangsu, Anhui, and Hubei are regions to pay ecological compensation. 

There is a great practical significance to study the difference and coordination of regional innovation ability in promoting the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt. Intellectual property resources are the foundation of innovation and development, and the regional distribution of intellectual property resources is closely related to economic development. This paper constructs an evaluation index system for the level of intellectual property development. Then based on the exploratory spatial data analysis, quadrant method and coupling and coordinating degree, the spatial pattern and evolution of intellectual property development in the Yangtze River Economic Belt are analyzed and its coupling relationship with the economic development is also compared. The results show as follows: in recent years, the level of intellectual property development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt has developed rapidly with obvious spatial agglomeration, and the level of intellectual property development is higher in the eastern region, but lower in the western region. Among the three major urban agglomerations in the area, the Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration located in the east is the region with a good development of intellectual property resources and the development of the cities there are relatively balanced. In general, there is a good coupling relationship between intellectual property resources and economic development. However, in the cities with higher levels of economic development, intellectual property resources in most cities still lag behind economic development. Therefore, innovation drive has still become a key factor restricting the economic development. We try to divide the cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt into different classifications, and for the cities in different types, the relationships between intellectual property resources and economic development show different characteristics, and so there should be some appropriate policies to promote the cities’ coordinated development. And based on the research, we hope to provide some references and help for promoting the further development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt.

Innovation is a pioneer driving force for development, and green development is the primary requirement of the Yangtze River Economic Belt Strategy. Taking 108 cities in Yangtze River Economic Belt as the objects, we construct a comprehensive evaluation system of scientific and technological innovation and green development. Using entropy method, coupling coordination degree model and the spatial Markov chain method, this paper analyzes the coupling degree, spatial-temporal distribution and correlation of scientific and technological innovation and green development in the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 2006 to 2016. The conclusions are as follows. Firstly, during the research period, the scientific and technological innovation and green development index of Yangtze River Economic Belt have generally increased, but the overall level is low which only appear to grow simultaneously after 2013. Secondly, the coupling degree and coordination index of scientific and technological innovation and green development are on an upward trend,while the spatial differentiation within the belt is obvious，and that in the Yangtze River Delta is markedly higher than that of other regions. Thirdly, The coordination of technological innovation and green development is clustered, showing a declining feature of “downstream＞midstream＞upstream”. Cities among lower coordination index can be classified into three types, namely “leading in technology innovation”, “leading in green development” and “balanced”. Besides, there exists significant spatial spillover effects in the coordination of scientific and technological innovation and green development. The transformation of the coordination degree in adjacent cities has similar characteristics. Finally, corresponding policy suggestions are provided.

As a multi-element gathering space, urban agglomeration is characterized by the “human-ground” coupling characteristics and laws represented by the interaction between urbanization and ecological environment. Based on the perspective of “human-ground coupling” and constructing an indicator system, comprehensively measure the coupling relationship between urbanization and ecological environment of the three major urban agglomerations in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, and analyze the coordination type and main control factors. The study found: (1) The overall urbanization and ecological environment coupling coordination degree of urban agglomeration reaches 0.38, the spatial dependence is strong, and the high and low clustering degree is higher; (2)There are some differences in the coupling relationship between urbanization and ecological environment in the three major urban agglomerations, and the spatial imbalance is more significant; (3)The “coordination” characteristics of the coupling relationship between urbanization and ecological environment have many types, and the lag-type coordination phenomenon of urbanization is more common, and there is a “weak” coordination problem at the same time; (4) The main controlling factors of urban agglomeration and eco-environment coupling in urban agglomeration changed from economic urbanization to population urbanization in the past decade; the Yangtze River Delta, the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and Chengyu were respectively affected by population concentration, construction investment and industrial pollution. Leading influence.

Taking Suzhou City, a typical city characterized by plain river network area in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River Delta, as an example. Based on the remote sensing images of the 1970s, the 1990s and the 2010s and the river system data of the 1960s, the1980s and the 2010s, streams structure parameters were adopted to analyze the disturbance of different urban expansion modes on different levels of rivers. Meanwhile, the evolvement relationship between spatial expansion of the city and river system structure was revealed. Research shows that: (1) Urban sprawl has the characteristics of stage and trend, and is affected and restricted by natural environment and social economy; (2) The transformation and evolution of river system shows regional differences under different stages of urbanization. River density, water surface ratio and other streams structure parameters have changed greatly in raptly urbanized area in recent years; followed by areas urbanized in the 1980s; while old town in highly urbanized stage had the smallest change and increased slightly. In the 1960s-2010s, the change range of river network density in above three districts was -21.06%, -16.23% and 1.88%, respectively. (3) The development of the river structure is significantly affected by urbanization process. The structure of the river network in the natural state is relatively stable, and after entering the urbanization stage, the stability of river structure is reduced. This study can provide reference and theoretical support for river system protection, urban planning and flood prevention and mitigation in urbanized areas.

The source region of the Yangtze River, located in the central Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau, has water conservation function, and is also a natural barrier of ecosystem for the Yangtze River Basin. Meanwhile, natural ecosystem is the most sensitive, and eco-environment is very fragile in this region. As a primary producer in the aquatic ecosystem, phytoplankton plays an important role in reflecting water environment quality. To explore water environment properties and phytoplankton community characteristics in the source region of the Yangtze River, systematic surveys of water environments and phytoplankton in 10 typical sections were carried out in March 2018 and October 2018. In October, water environmental parameters such as flow velocity, turbidity, water temperature, and conductivity of the sections were all higher than those in March. These water environmental parameters such as turbidity, salinity, conductivity of the Chumaer River were significantly higher than other river segments in the same month. There was no significant difference in pH, dissolved oxygen and nitrite nitrogen among the river segments in the two months. A total of 58 phytoplankton species belonging to 4 phyla and 28 genus were identified, among which Bacillariophyta (79.3% of the total species number), Chlorophyta (10.4%), Cyanophyta (8.6%) were dominant. The variations  of phytoplankton density were 6.06×104-39.90×104 cells·L-1, the average of phytoplankton biomass was 0.59 mg·L-1 during the investigation. The dominant species were Oscillatoria formosa,Diatoma vulgare,Fragilaria sp., Synedra sp., Navicula sp., Cymbella sp., and Chlorella sp.. In March 2018 and October 2018, the Shannon-Wiener diversity means were 3.06 and 3.12, the Margalef diversity means were 1.17 and 1.52, and the Pielou diversity means were 0.90 and 0.82, respectively. Combined with nutrient indexes, phytoplankton density and diversity indexes, water quality in the source region of the Yangtze River was generally non-polluted or slightly polluted.

In order to study the effects of different agricultural land consolidation measures on soil bacteria, high-throughput sequencing technology was used to compare the soil bacterial diversity and structure under different agricultural land consolidation measures. The results showed that: (1) From the perspective of bacterial diversity, the soil bacterial diversity of the sample sites under agricultural land consolidation was significantly improved. （2) From the perspective of bacterial population structure, measures such as land merging, land levelling, ditch construction and improving soil fertility had effectively improved the abundance of beneficial bacteria such as Methylocaldum, Nitrosomonas and Desulfonema. (3) The pH, Cu and Pb content were the important oil environmental factors affecting soil bacterial diversity and structure in agricultural land remediation areas by correlation analysis. The study confirmed the important role of agricultural land consolidation in improving soil bacterial diversity and soil quality, and also provided a scientific basis for the development of agricultural land consolidation.

As an important component and core link of the ecological environment of the whole Yangtze River Economic Zone, Waterfront Resources play an irreplaceable important role in production, living and ecological environment. The ecological protection on the waterfront along the Yangtze River is the key element in the protection and ecological restoration of the Yangtze River. Based on the systematic investigation and evaluation of the waterfront resources along the Yangtze River, the existing problems of the ecological environment protection on the waterfront along the Yangtze River were revealed, the main causes of the ecological changes and problems were analyzed, and the countermeasures and suggestions were put forward based on the experience of the Rhine River, with a view to providing reference for the green development and ecological restoration of the Yangtze River.

Natural shoreline plays an important role in maintaining the growth of aquatic animals and protecting wetlands along the Yangtze River. This paper identifies the types of natural shorelines and constructs the classification system of the Yangtze River’s natural shoreline. Based on remote sensing image interpretation and field investigation, find out the distribution patterns of the Yangtze River natural shoreline. The natural shoreline of Yangtze River remains 4996 km. The retention rate of natural shoreline reaches 63%, in which retention rate of the bottomland wetland with extreme ecological value is below 19%. Natural shoreline are mainly distributed in Chongqing Province, Hubei Province, Anhui Province and other provinces. On overall retention rate of  natural shoreline in upstream regions is higher than downstream. The problems of artificial encroachment and interaction in shoreline, excessive hardening of embankments and shoreline encroachment in the reserve areas are discovered. Then the countermeasures and suggestions of natural shorelines protection are put forward, so as to provide references for the control of shorelines and ecological restoration of the Yangtze River.

Water front resources is an important natural resource closely related to human beings, which is at the core of the interactive relationship among population, resources, environment and economic development. As an important supporting resource and key object of development in the Yangtze River Economic Zone, the Yangtze River water front resources play an irreplaceable important production, life and ecological function. In the context of “joint efforts to protect the Yangtze river rather than develop it”, the Chinese Academy of Sciences launched the “Investigation and Assessment of Water Front Resources in the Yangtze River Economic Zone” project in 2017, which is a key project of the STS program of Chinese academy of sciences, aiming at the major scientific and technological needs of ecological restoration of the Yangtze river. Since the implementation of the project, the project team has obtained the system data of the natural background, resource conditions, utilization status and ecological environment of seven major tributaries of the Yangtze river by means of high-resolution remote sensing image interpretation, field investigation and field monitoring. The purpose of researching and judging the water front resources conditions and the overall development and utilization situation of the main tributaries of the Yangtze river is to coordinate the development and utilization of water front resources, strengthen the protection of resources, and maintain the fine ecological environment of the land and waters near the water front. Based on the analysis of ecological environment sensitivity, the project identifies the key problems in the utilization of water front resources and evaluates the cumulative impact of water front development and utilization activities on the ecological environment. On the basis of the comprehensive evaluation of water front resources, the water front space control zone is defined and the control requirements of different water front types are proposed.

The scientific and orderly exploitation of port coastline resources is an important way to support the high-quality development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt. Based on the data of high-resolution remote sensing image and chemical enterprises along the Yangtze river, we select the coastline of the Yangtze River trunk stream and investigate the exploitation of port coastline resources and its spatial effects along the Yangtze river by means of GIS and other technical methods. The research shows that the port coastline is the main type of exploitation of the Yangtze River coastline and there are quite differences in the exploitation intensity and efficiency of the upstream and downstream port coastline. The exploitation intensity of Jiangsu port coastline is the highest, while that of Chongqing and Sichuan is relatively low. The exploitation efficiency of Suzhou port coastline is always at the highest level, while that of Jingzhou port coastline is always at the lowest level, and the exploitation efficiency of individual port coastline fluctuates. In general, chemical enterprises within 5km along the Yangtze River are most significantly affected by the spatial effects of port coastline exploitation, but their influence scope and intensity are obviously different in different areas of the upper, middle and lower reaches along the Yangtze River.

The contradiction between industrial development and ecological environment along the Yangtze river is prominent. The demarcation of the ecological red line along the Yangtze river is of great significance to the ecological protection and the orderly development of the Yangtze river coastline. This paper combs the concept and connotation of the ecological red line, and summarizes the research status and theoretical basis of the ecological red line. This paper establishes the evaluation index system of ecological red line of the Yangtze River coastline from three aspects: ecological sensitivity, importance of ecological function and prohibition of development zones. Finally, the technical method and process of delimiting the ecological red line along the Yangtze River coastline are established. The ecological red line demarcation method is applied to the Yangtze river coastline. The research results show that the length of the first-grade protection zone of the ecological red line on the Yangtze River coastline is 597.11 km, accounting for 7.55% of the length of the Yangtze River coastline. It includes Jingzhou, Xianning, Anqing and other parts of the coastline. The ecological red line first-level protection zone implements the most stringent control measures and prohibits any development and construction activities. The length of the second-level protection zone of the ecological red line on the Yangtze River coastline is 1171.29 km, accounting for 14.81% of the total length of the Yangtze River coastline. It includes some shore sections such as Yueyang, Chizhou and Suzhou. The intensity of space development activities should be strictly controlled in the secondary ecological red line protection zone. The secondary protection zone should ensure that the ecological red line function is not reduced, the red line area is not reduced, and the resource utilization is not exceeded. This study has important theoretical and practical value and significance for constructing the ecological security pattern of the Yangtze River coastline.

From 2017, the key project “Investigation and Assessment of Water Front Resources in the Yangtze River Economic Zone” of science and technology service network program of Chinese Academy of Sciences(STS program) is based on satellite remote sensing, ground survey, standard digitization, model simulation and socio-economic statistics, which has accumulated abundant water front resources data. The platform aims at the integration and collaborative management of observation elements such as water front resources utilization and ecological environment change. This platform assimilates, cleans and standardizes a large number of multi-source heterogeneous data, formulates standards for data processing and compilation, establishes a spatiotemporal database for comprehensive utilization of water front resources, and forms a comprehensive coastal resources management platform with data standardization management and visualization of results display and query as the core.

Land use and land cover change(LUCC) is a major variable affecting the long-term hydrological processes. To quantify simulate the impact of land use cover change on hydrological processes in large basins, a large scale distributed hydrological model was developed. The hydrological effects of potential land use change scenarios are evaluated by using the distributed hydrological model based on theoretical scenarios. The results indicated that the output of the model successfully reveals the response character of ratios among ET, surface runoff, base flow under given precipitation at HRUs to basin scales. The evapotranspiration, surface runoff, groundwater flow and water yield were affected by the land use change scenarios in different magnitudes. Overall, changes of land use and land cover have significant impacts on runoff patterns at the watershed scale in terms of both the total water yield(i.e., sum of groundwater flow, surface runoff, and interflow) and the spatial distribution of runoff. The changes in runoff distribution were opposite within the two land use scenarios with the emphasis on forest or agriculture. The base flow was the most affected component in the hydrological cycle, which has a decrease of 15.3 percent in the forest-prone landscape scenario. Whereas, the surface runoff has a decrease of 5.2 percent. All scenarios show not significant impacts on the evapotranspiration and the general water yield, which were limited to the 1.2% and 0.7%. Thus, the different runoff patterns associated with each land use scenario imply the potential effect on flood or drought mitigation policy. The rational spatial planning can be conducted based on the hydrological impacts from HRUs to sub-basins. 

Heavy metal pollution has been a serious problem facing rivers worldwide because of its persistence, toxicity and bioaccumulation. As the largest river in China, Yangtze River plays an important role in providing water, mitigating flood, and maintaining ecological balance. Therefore, it is of great importance to study its metal pollution status. As is a carcinogenic heavy metal and one of the most important pollutants in the Yangtze River. In this study the spatial distribution and health risk of As in riverside water of Yangtze River were assessed. The results showed that As concentration increased from upstream to downstream generally. The comparison with existing studies indicated that As concentration in Yangtze River showed a decreasing trend. However, special attention should be paid to sites(such as sites of 52, 43, 42, 51, 78, 81) where As showed high cancer risk. Water temperature and ion concentration may be important factors affecting As toxicity. This study provides a basis for the treatment and protection of water environmental pollution in Yangtze River. 

Inland rivers are hotpots for the exchange of greenhouse gases(GHGs) with the atmosphere and have a significant influence on global carbon cycle. GHGs(CH4 and CO2) emission from waters of the riparian zone of middle and lower reaches of Yangtze River was measured during the normal season of 2017 and flood season of 2018. Results showed that the fluxes of CH4 and CO2 across the water-air interface ranged from 0.39 to 9668.83 nmol·m-2·h-1 and 0.25 to 3 229.41 μmol·m-2·h-1 in normal season, respectively, while -22.80 to 329.76 nmol·m-2·h-1 and -110.21 to 16.39 μmol·m-2·h-1 in wet season, respectively, for CH4 and CO2. Water temperature, pH, total dissolved phosphorus, and C/N ratio were important influencing factors on CH4 and CO2 fluxes. In addition, the fluxes of CH4 and CO2 at river-connected areas were significantly higher than at lake-connected areas. Due to differences in the external pollutions and land use characteristics, urban zones showed the highest CH4 and CO2 fluxes, followed by natural, wetland and estuarine zones. Industrial areas showed the lowest CH4 and CO2 fluxes. An annual carbon emission of middle and low reaches of Yangtze River was dominated by CO2, with an estimation of 1.93×107 t(C)/a, while only 2.28×104 t(C)/a for CH4. Compared to other large rivers, the estimation value of annual carbon emission of Yangtze River was relatively lower.

Based on timeseries of the Landsat images from 1987 to 2017, the information of water-level fluctuation zone and inundation frequency in middle and lower reaches of the Hanjiang River was extracted, and the spatial and temporal changes and phase characteristics of the water-level fluctuation zone and water area were analyzed. The results show that in the past 30 years, the average area of fluctuation zone ranges from 76 to 256 km2, and water areas ranges from 183 to 550 km2, but it differs among different regions. In general, the fluctuation zone is characterized by a wide upstream and a narrow downstream. The area with the largest area of the water-level fluctuation zone is located in the Yicheng-Zhongshankou section of the middle reaches, and the smallest area is located in the Xiantao-Hanchuan section of the lower reaches. The overall inundation frequency of middle and lower reaches of Hanjiang River decreased in 1987-2001 and increased in 2002-2017, indicating the change of the temporal rhythm of the water-level fluctuation zone. The characteristics of the water area, fluctuation zone and the inundation frequency differ between in the large reservoir regions and in others. The water area and the inundation frequency of the reservoir regions increase greatly after the completion of the reservoir, and the fluctuation zone range decreases. But in other regions, the water and fluctuation area change little, and the inundation frequency increases first and then decreases.

Ammonium(NH4+) is the preferred nitrogen form for plankton, its regeneration(REG) and potential uptake(Upot) are related to primary productivity and growth of organisms in water ecosystems. In this study, NH4+ recycling rates in the littoral zone of the middle reach of the Yangtze River were studied by using the isotope dilution method. Results showed that the REG rates in the middle reach of the Yangtze River were 0.12-1.62 μmol/(L·h), the Upot rates were 0.21-2.35 μmol/(L·h), and the community biological NH4+ demand(CBAD) rates were 0.08-0.75 μmol/(L·h). Moreover, along with the flow direction of Yangtze River, NH4+ recycling rates showed significant decreased trend from Yichang to Poyang Lake estuary(p<0.05). Statistical analyses showed that chemical oxygen demand(COD) and suspended solids(SS) are the main factors influencing the NH4+ recycling rates in the middle reach of the Yangtze River. During the study area, the REG rates accounted for 43.1%-76.0% of the Upot rates, with a mean value of 58.5%±8.5%. This indicated that REG is the main source of NH4+ in the process of Upot by the biological communities in the middle reach of the Yangtze River. NH4+ produced by REG process is 2 times higher than that of water column TN loads, indicating that REG plays an important role in supporting primary productivity and maintaining nitrogen internal circulation. 

From two aspects the research in this paper focuses on the changes of precipitation in the Hanjiang River Basin. On the one hand a literature review about the historical changes in the period of 1961-2011 compares the previous research results; on the other hand using five global climate models(GCMs) from CMIP5, the trend of precipitation in 1961-2049 is projected. The literature review shows the result that there is not clear trend in the precipitation change in the Hanjiang River Basin in the historical period of 1961-2011. While some literatures showed a 17-year-period and a 30-year-period in the time series in their work. Furthermore, the GCMs in this area verify the conclusions from the literature review. There are not obvious upward or downward trend of precipitation in the period of 1961-2049 in the basin, but relatively clear a 17-year-period and a 30-year-period under the scenario of RCP4.5. Under the RCP2.6 and RCP8.5 scenarios the precipitation periods have changed in the times series. Under RCP2.6 the period can be found as 5 a and 11 a, while under RCP8.5 as 8 a and 17 a. In conclusion, the results from the GCMs analysis are basically in accordance with those in literature review. There are no significant trend in precipitation in the Hanjiang River Basin in the past 50 years and also in the next 30 years.

Located in the Jianghan Plain densely, water conservancy projects, especially the large-scale water transfer projects, have a great influence on the structure of water utilization in the watershed. Due to climate change the water supply and demand related to the water transfer projects will also be affected and furthermore the water distribution in the watershed. Mapping the overall structure of the water projects in the Hanjiang River catchment, mainly focusing on the planning and design indices and the operation status of Mid-route of the South-to-North Water Transfer Project(Mid-route Project) and the Jiang-Han Water Transfer Project(Yangtz-Hangjiang Project), this paper makes more clear of the potential conflicts in the water distribution due to the operation of these projects. In addition, based on the climate change scenarios from the scientific research in this area, and with the increase of the duration and frequency of drought, the cost of pumping and diverting water in the water diversion projects will increase, thus intensifying the water contradiction in Jianghan Plain. The main research results are as follows,(1) From the project design and operation, after the Mid-route of the South-to-North Water Transfer Project reaches the design of water diversion, the Jianghan Water Transfer Project is likely to be limited in guaranteeing the water demand of the lower reaches of the Hanjiang River. (2) Since the operation of the project of diverting water from the Jianghan Water Transfer Project, the pumping and diversion cost of pumping stations in 2018 has reached 30% of the total operating funds, although there has not been a long period of pumping and diversion. If the water level of the Yangtze River at the diversion mouth of the Jianghan Water Transfer Project falls and the Self-diversion is limited, the time and frequency of using pumping station to divert water will increase, which will further increase the cost of diversion. (3)The Mid-route of the South-to-North Water Transfer Project, The Project of Diversion from Han to Weihe Rive and The Hubei North Water Resources Allocation Project. All three projects divert water from the Hanjiang River. Besides add water for production and living in the middle and lower reaches of the Hanjiang River. If encounter the dry year, the Hanjiang River allocation of water resources will bring great contradiction, which will affect the development of the Hanjiang River basin.

With the vigorous development of terraced hydropower in the lower reaches of the Jinsha River, the impact of water discharge on the downstream riverbed and shore line is gradually revealed. This study attempts to use a comparative analysis of government and civil data and image data before and after field observations, visits and water leakage. Explore the root causes of the problem and ways to avoid the seriousness of the problem. In order to provide a reference basis for protecting the Yangtze River and repairing its ecological environment by unite as one. It is found that the discharge of clear water has a more obvious effect on some riverbed and shore resources in the Jinsha River section below the dam site of the Xiangjiaba hydroelectric power station. Such as the river section of the original common sand beach, gravel beach in addition to Yangwan Pier only one sand island, the rest of all disappeared. The top-punch ingressled and caused more than half of the loss of unguarded river floods，and even causes the beach collapse. A dam on the Baijia Beach embankment will be drained. The third phase of the Shuifu Port expansion project has aggravated the adverse effects further on the Xiaoan Bank dam in The town of Anbian, Sichuan Province. Severe undercorrosiation lateral erosion caused a significant drop in the water level of the river during the same period. It also poses a safety hazard to the production and life of the residents on both sides of the shore line. The author thought that the relevant parties have insufficient understanding of the particularity of the region and the impact of the construction of hydropower stations. Contradictions with the development, interests, environmental protection needs is the root cause of the problem. Problems arise and lack effective communication mechanisms. 

The National Nature Reserve for the Rare and Endemic Fishes in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River(NREFURYR) is characterized by openness, transboundarity and ambiguity. With the utilization of waterfront resources, the functional degeneration of the fish spawning grounds is observed in the NREFURYR. Aiming at improving the protection and effectiveness of the NREFURYR, 36 spawning sites in Yibin were selected to conduct on-the-spot investigation. The status quo of fish spawning river sections as well as waterfront utilization, the status of spawning fish and the problems faced by spawning grounds were comprehensively analyzed. Accordingly, the current functional status of spawning grounds were evaluated and ranked. The results showed that the spawning sites with good and medium function account 33.3% of the total sites, as the spawning sites with partial degraded and severe degraded function accounting 61% of that. Facing the future development of fish spawning grounds and the reserve, several proposed implication were put forward, such as carrying out systematic investigation and research to scientifically understand the status of protected objects, well dealing with the relationship between development and protection in order to enhance the sustainability of waterfront utilization, as well as setting up independent management agencies to improve the regulatory effectiveness.

Waterfront resources are important bases for sustainable development of social economy and for maintaining ecological balance. Researching overseas experience in development and practice of large river basins has important practical significance to coordinating the relationship between protection and utilization of water front resources, as well as promoting the construction of ecological civilization and the Yangtze River protection in China. Problems and measures of comprehensive management and ecological environment protection in the Rhine basin are comprehensively analyzed in this study, and some countermeasures are put forward to promote waterfront resources along the Yangtze River development and management from aspects of attaching importance to restoring the health of Yangtze River ecosystem, innovating the organization and integrated management system of waterfront resources in the Yangtze River Economic Belt, making overall plans and coordination of waterfront space, enhancing the ecological protection and restoration of waterfront ecosystem, facilitating intensive utilization and promoting functions coordination of waterfront resources. This review expects to provide consultations for ecological protection and comprehensive management of the Yangtze River protection in China.