Dry rivers (DR) are a non-perennial type of river that flows for only hours or a few days, primarily after heavy rain that often causes flash floods. Unlike intermittent and ephemeral rivers, they are disconnected from groundwater and do not support aquatic life. DR have often been undervalued by some scientific and social groups in terms of nature’s contributions to people (NCP) because of the lack of an integrative perspective to encompass them and their high aridity and low flow. This study aims to provide the state of the art on DR in terms of geographic distribution, NCP, human well-being and drivers of change, and to identify knowledge gaps and the tools to bridge them. To this end, a systematic review of 79 scientific documents (26 case studies, 53 evidence-based works) published between 1995 and 2019 was conducted. Firstly, we analysed the main research trends using publication rates and bibliometric techniques. Secondly, we analysed DR distribution, NCP and drivers of change using mapping techniques, descriptive statistics and bibliographic analysis respectively. We especially identified regulating NCP but to a lesser extent, also material and non-material NCP affected by land use change, climate change, overexploitation, and demographic, political and economic changes. We found relevant gaps on NCP and how they affect the different components of well-being, and the effect of indirect drivers of change on them. Geographical information systems, international scientific collaboration, and basin and transdisciplinary approaches, could accelerate bridging gaps while new research, rehabilitation, management and conservation, and socio-economic opportunities are developed in parallel.

干河 (DR) 是一种非常年性河流，只流动数小时或数天，主要是在经常导致山洪暴发的大雨之后。与间歇性和短暂的河流不同，它们与地下水断开连接，不支持水生生物。就自然对人类的贡献 (NCP) 而言，DR 经常被一些科学和社会团体低估，因为缺乏包含它们的综合视角以及它们的高干旱和低流量。本研究旨在提供地理分布、NCP、人类福祉和变革驱动因素方面的 DR 的最新技术，并确定知识差距和弥合这些差距的工具。为此，对 1995 年至 2019 年间发表的 79 篇科学文献（26 篇案例研究，53 篇循证著作）进行了系统审查。首先，我们使用发表率和文献计量技术分析了主要研究趋势。其次，我们分别使用映射技术、描述性统计和书目分析来分析 DR 分布、NCP 和变化驱动因素。我们特别确定了受土地利用变化、气候变化、过度开发以及人口、政治和经济变化影响的物质和非物质 NCP，但在较小程度上也是如此。我们发现了 NCP 的相关差距以及它们如何影响幸福感的不同组成部分，以及变化的间接驱动因素对它们的影响。地理信息系统、国际科学合作以及流域和跨学科方法可以加速弥合差距，同时新的研究、恢复、管理和保护，