ABSTRACT Dryland rivers are differentiated from other rivers by high flow variability. They are also particularly important for river regulation to secure supplies for irrigation agriculture and to meet other human demands. The dilemma is that river regulation not only has considerable benefits for human societies in achieving water security and providing flood protection but also represents perhaps the greatest cause of hydrological interference by humans. In Australia, the Murray–Darling basin with only 21 mm of run-off had committed over 90% of the exploitable yield to consumptive irrigation use as early as the late 1970s. Here, perhaps more so than in any other country, there arose an imperative to advance a new river science to support the environmentally sound management of regulated dryland rivers and Keith Walker was at the heart of that endeavour. In this short opinion piece, I offer observations on how his search for a “general model” has advanced over the past two decades.

中文翻译：

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观点：旱地河流调控的河流科学

摘要 旱地河流与其他河流的不同之处在于流量变化很大。它们对于河流调节以确保灌溉农业的供应和满足其他人类需求也尤为重要。困境在于，河流调节不仅对人类社会在实现水安全和提供防洪方面有相当大的好处，而且可能是人类干扰水文的最大原因。在澳大利亚，早在 1970 年代后期，只有 21 毫米径流的墨累-达令盆地已将 90% 以上的可开采产量用于消耗性灌溉用途。在这里，也许比在任何其他国家都要多，迫切需要推进新的河流科学，以支持受监管的旱地河流的无害环境管理，而基思·沃克 (Keith Walker) 是这项工作的核心。在这篇简短的评论文章中，我对他对“通用模型”的探索在过去二十年中取得的进展提供了观察。