Study on Evaluation Index System for Ecological Effect of Water Conservancy Projects—A Case Study of the Weihe River Basin, China

With the transformation from traditional water conservancy to ecological water conservancy, functions of water conservancy projects have been changed. Under the background of the increasingly intensified ecological environment crisis, as the connection point between water consumption for human activities and natural water circulation, it is necessary to research on the ecological effect of water conservancy projects. The ecological effect is divided into natural ecological effect and social ecological effect from the perspective of whether to be affected by human activities. The concept of ecological effect of water conservancy projects is analyzed. The three-level ecological effects of water conservancy projects are presented. A framework of three-level evaluation index system for ecological effect of water conservancy projects is preliminarily constructed. The quantitative evaluation for ecological effect of water conservancy projects can be achieved. The method is applied to evaluate the ecological effect of large-scale water conservancy projects in the Weihe River Basin, China. The results show that the three-level evaluation index system is of high applicability and validity, which provides scientific basis for the quantitative evaluation for ecological effect of water projects and offers a better support to healthy development of river ecosystems.