As part of the 2025 World Water Day and China Water Week celebrations, the international journal River hosted IWHR held a special edition of its signature event River Dialogue on March 24.

The event was themed “Soil and Water Conservation in the Loess Plateau Supporting High-Quality Development in the Water Sector,” and gathered top experts from IWHR, Tsinghua University, Xi’an University of Technology, and panelists from around the world for in-depth academic exchange.

Academician Chen Zuyu of the Chinese Academy of Sciences delivered the keynote address, providing a comprehensive review of check dams on China’s Loess Plateau. He highlighted the vital role of check dams in land reclamation, environmental improvement, and sediment reduction in the Yellow River. Addressing the increasing frequency of dam failures in recent decades, Professor Chen introduced innovative approaches such as flood transfer techniques and a genealogy-based method for analyzing dam system performance and critical rainfall thresholds. He also presented an updated dam breach assessment framework, new numerical algorithms, and a series of innovative drainage facilities, concluding with a forward-looking perspective on future construction strategies for the Loess Plateau.

The invited speaker session featured integrated development of water, energy, food, and ecology in the Yellow River Basin, systematic soil and water conservation in China’s national policies, and research on knickpoint evolution in gully systems and its implications for check dam performance. Penal discussion spotlighted lively exchanges on key topics such as ecological compensation mechanisms for check dams, multi-factor collaborative management, and advances in intelligent monitoring and early-warning technologies.

Playback of the event is available at:

https://www.iahr.org/en/lives/details?live_id=165&video_id=1750