Primary study of freshwater ecoregionalization in China
中国水生态分区初探

Management of natural resources and protection of the environment from the angle of ecosystems is becoming the mainstream trend in the field of environmental protection. And environmental protection and management of resources based on ecoregions and geographical classification units has been accepted widely. Compared with hydrological regionalization and functional subareas of aquatic environments, freshwater ecoregions have great advantages in management, assessment and protection of freshwater resources, environments and aquatic ecosystems such as rivers, streams and lakes. In this work, freshwater classifications in China are firstly compared with the main global freshwater ecoregions and classifications, the advantages and shortcomings of freshwater ecoregions and classifications are analyzed, and the need to research freshwater ecoregions is emphasized. Then, the objectives, scope and indices of freshwater ecoregionalization in China are proposed. We suggest that freshwater ecoregions in China should be based on the actual freshwater ecosystems and environmental characteristics, give prominence to the ecological service function of waters such as rivers and lakes, the sensitivity of aquatic ecosystems and the disturbance and impact of human activities. Finally, the scope and classification indices of freshwater ecoregionalization in China and the harmony of freshwater ecoregions in future environmental management with current regionalization systems are discussed.