The institute closely focuses on major national needs and scientific issues at the frontier of discipline development, with regard to assurance for water quality health and safe applications. Studies are conducted to investigate the interactions and mechanisms of biological processes and water cycle elements, analyze the laws of hydrological cycle, transformation and balance in ecosystems, and explore the climatic, hydrological, and ecological processes and response mechanisms. Combined with the results, further studies are performed to construct the law of water quality and quantity changes in the ecosystem and the prediction and forecasting methods, and develop water quality and quantity dynamic monitoring and management informatization technology, drought and flood disaster early-warning, forecasting, and prevention technology, and water ecological restoration technology. These studies are guided by the concept of green ecology to solve the constraints of water resources and environment, which can provide theoretical and technical support for the security, healthy restoration, and protection of waters in the extreme and benign states in order to stabilize the good characteristics of water ecosystems and achieve the management objective of sustainable use of water resources. Directions of research include:
(1) Comprehensive management of watershed water security
(2) Climate change and ecological hydrological processes
(3) Multi-scale water environment health assessment