Abstract A key question in sustainable development is how much alteration in natural systems, such as river basins, is acceptable? One of the ways by which humans alter a river basin is by building water storage infrastructure. While storage reservoirs deliver numerous benefits, they can also induce social and environmental costs by displacing people, fragmenting river networks and altering downstream flow regimes. In such a context, merely capping total water withdrawal from rivers for human consumption is not sufficient. River basin plans should also identify optimal (acceptable) limits to surface storage capacities, and optimal numbers, degrees of distribution and locations of storage infrastructure. It remains largely unclear, however, whether it is possible to define a hydrologically, ecologically and socially justified ‘surface water storage boundary’ for a river basin. An associated question is what would be the ‘best’ arrangement of this bounding storage capacity in the basin's river network (in terms of numbers, sizes and locations of reservoirs) to maximize water storage benefits and minimize environmental and social costs. The main objective of this review is to examine contemporary knowledge on surface water storage development with a focus on tools and approaches that may help to answer the above questions of a ‘surface water storage boundary’ and its ‘optimum arrangement’ for a river basin. In order to achieve this objective, our review introduces two novel concepts: the ‘storage scale’ and the ‘sustainable storage development framework.’ The ‘storage scale’ has four elements – capacity, number, distribution and location – individual scales that help visualize a ‘surface water storage boundary’ and its ‘optimum arrangement’ for a typical river basin. The ‘sustainable storage development framework’ consists of three dimensions – economic benefits, ecosystems and society- and a set of indicators quantifying each dimension. This review shows that optimal levels of the elements of the ‘storage scale’ may be identified using the ‘sustainable storage development framework’.

中文翻译：

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一个河流流域可以接受多少人工地表蓄水量以及它应该位于何处：综述

摘要 可持续发展的一个关键问题是对自然系统（如河流流域）的改变程度是可以接受的？人类改变流域的方式之一是建造蓄水基础设施。虽然蓄水库带来了许多好处，但它们也可以通过迁移人员、分散河流网络和改变下游流态来引起社会和环境成本。在这种情况下，仅仅限制人类消费的河流取水总量是不够的。流域规划还应确定地表存储容量的最佳（可接受）限制，以及存储基础设施的最佳数量、分布程度和位置。然而，在很大程度上仍不清楚，是否有可能在水文上定义一个、流域生态和社会合理的“地表水储存边界”。一个相关的问题是流域河网中这种边界蓄水能力的“最佳”安排是什么（就水库的数量、大小和位置而言），以最大限度地提高蓄水效益并最大限度地减少环境和社会成本。这篇综述的主要目的是研究关于地表水蓄水开发的当代知识，重点是有助于回答上述“地表水蓄水边界”及其流域“最佳安排”问题的工具和方法。为了实现这一目标，我们的评论引入了两个新概念：“存储规模”和“可持续存储开发框架”。“存储规模”有四个要素——容量、数量、分布和位置 - 有助于可视化“地表水储存边界”及其典型流域的“最佳布置”的各个尺度。“可持续储能发展框架”包括三个维度——经济效益、生态系统和社会——以及一套量化每个维度的指标。该审查表明，可以使用“可持续存储开发框架”确定“存储规模”元素的最佳水平。