Check dams have been used throughout the world for a variety of purposes including torrent control, water supply enhancement, agricultural land development, and watershed restoration. National, regional and local governments have invested, and continue to invest, in basin scale erosion-control projects that may include both maintenance of existing and construction of new check dams. The functions of these structures are diverse and vary depending on the geomorphic context where the structures are built. However, although the number of check dams constructed to control floods, regulate sediment transport, reduce upstream reach slopes and stabilize torrent beds continues to increase, some projects have experienced disappointing results, and thus project objectives are not achieved. Causes of failure include poor construction quality, inadequate check dam location and lack of adequate design criteria. These failures lead to reduced confidence in using check dams as restoration tools. Moreover, both construction of dense networks of check dams and construction of a few large open structures require major economic investments, however a comprehensive evaluation of their long-term effectiveness is still lacking. This review aims to achieve a detailed synthesis of the effects of check dams based on a review of the literature that includes conceptual thinking, field observations and numerical approaches. Using the knowledge gaps identified in this work as a starting point, the review is an effort to join and share scientific and technical information from a variety of sites throughout the world based on the legacy effects of check dams. The role of complex interactions between ecological impacts, geomorphic processes and engineering activities is also highlighted. Overall, this review identifies the self-similar character of check dams and the process feedback loops they initiate across a range of spatial scales and geographic settings.

止水坝已在全球范围内用于各种目的，包括洪流控制，供水增强，农田开发和流域恢复。国家，地区和地方政府已经投资并继续投资于流域规模的侵蚀控制项目，这些项目可能既包括对现有大坝的维护，也包括对新大坝的建设。这些结构的功能是多种多样的，并且取决于构建结构的地貌环境。然而，尽管建造用于控制洪水，调节泥沙输送，减少上游河道坡度和稳定洪流床的止水坝的数量继续增加，但一些项目的结果令人失望，因此未达到项目目标。失败的原因包括不良的施工质量，检查坝位置不足和缺乏适当的设计标准。这些故障导致使用止水坝作为修复工具的信心降低。而且，既要建造密集的检查坝网络，又要建造一些大型的开放式结构，都需要大量的经济投资，但是仍然缺乏对其长期有效性的全面评估。这篇综述的目的是在对包括概念性思维，实地观察和数值方法在内的文献进行综述的基础上，对止水坝的效果进行详细的综合。审查以工作中发现的知识空白为出发点，是根据检查大坝的遗留效应，努力汇集和共享来自世界各地不同地点的科学和技术信息。还强调了生态影响，地貌过程和工程活动之间复杂相互作用的作用。总体而言，本次审查确定了检查坝的自相似特征，以及它们在一系列空间尺度和地理环境中引发的过程反馈回路。