One hundred years ago,Prof. Chu Kochen published “On the origins of the West Lake (Hangzhou)” in the journal Kexue (Science) in 1921. In 1940, the Chinese Institute of Geography was founded in Beibei (Chongqing), then moved to Nanjing after the victory of Anti-Japanese War. In 1953, the Institute of Geography (Academia Sinica) was officially established in Nanjing, and soon after the Lake Group was set up (directed by Shi Chengxi) in 1958, which announced modern lake research in China. In 1987, the institute changed its name to Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (NIGLAS). Since then, NIGLAS have witnessed lake research progresses in China, from early activities such as lake survey to the comprehensive studies of lake sedimentology, physics, biological resource, eutrophication control, freshwater ecology, aquatic environment restoration and so on to meet the needs of national resource utilization, environment protection and ecological restoration in different times. Meanwhile, NIGLAS have developed novel watershed geography after integrating rural geography, regional studies and lake research.
In recent 30 years, NIGLAS have achieved a number of pioneering outputs in distinctive fields of limnology and watershed geography, and turned out to be an influential base on the geographical and limnological research both at home and abroad. It pioneered analytical study of national conditions and proposed a saving-style national economy strategy; edited important thematic maps such as “Agricultural Atlas of China” which essentially promoted the progress of regional geography; systematically studied natural resources, ecology, environment and urbanization in the lower Yangtze River area, thus developed integrated watershed study methodology; conducted comprehensive lake survey and established national lake information system and based on that created the systematic lake sciences in China; built a high efficiency utilization model for lake and wetland resources and proposed new aquaculture models for large surface waters. The institute has become an important research base for watershed geography and lake science with both domestic and international reputation.
To celebrate the 80th anniversary of NIGLAS,Journal of Lake Sciences invited some distinguished scholars who have long been engaged in relevant fields to conduct a systematic review of the progress in different sub-fields, such as shallow lake limnology and Lake Taihu eutrophication, the connotation of limnology and the challenge/reflection on the limnology development in China, lake environment and engineering, lake hydrology and water resources, lake paleo-ecology, remote sensing of water regimes. In addition, we also organized well-known experts to publish their scientific and academic views on current hot topics and focal lakes, i.e. 40-year physical changes in Lake Taihu, environmental protection for dredging decisions, evolution of Lake Baiyangdian since 1960s, Chinese sturgeon protection reflection, cyanobacteria blooms mitigation and Satellite-Aerial-Ground 3-D monitoring system for eutrophic lake/reservoirs.
We hope that the publication of this special issue will provide a systematic review of lake science development in China, andbring certain in-depth thinking for the future. With the continuous developing of earth surface system science and advancing of national integrative “Mountain-water-forest-field-lake-grass” system protection and restoration strategy in China, NIGLAS, as the only national research institute featuring lake science, aims to provide scientific and technological support for the key ecological civilization construction tasks, such as national drinking water safety, freshwater biodiversity protection, aquatic ecosystem services improving, and sustainable watershed management. NIGLAS will strive to become the main force in research on global lake change, freshwater ecosystem, and watershed environmental protection. The catastrophic floods in the Yangtze River Basin in 2020 brings new challenges to the lake science and catchment studies in China, such as the optimized regulation of the Three Gorges Reservoir, reflection on floods mitigation and river-lake relationship, regulative function change of watershed-scale lakes and reservoirs, future flood-drought alternates mechanism and disaster mitigation, interrelations of water resources protection, utilization and eutrophication.