The research achievements on “Upper Yangtze River reservoir-group optimal operation and its simulation decision supporting system” completed by Professor Cheng Genwei, Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment, CAS, has passed the scientific appraisal recently. Three-Gorges Reservoir is a world-famous oversized hydraulic engineering. The research on cascade reservoir optimization operation and its impact on stream flow downstream are significant both in scientific and engineering aspects. The scientists of Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment and Tsinghua University have solved the key theoretic and technical problems on optimal operating rule for large-scale cascade reservoirs. The influence mechanism of impounding and releasing water of cascade-reservoir upstream to river flow of Three Gorges Reservoir, the long-term runoff forecasting theory and method under different confidence level, the controlling principle of limiting-water-level of reservoir on flood season, the best time of water storage for the Three Gorges Reservoir after flood season and so on, have been explored and figured out. At the same time, the technical scheme and optimal operating regulation of Three Gorges Reservoir have also been proposed. These results are of great scientific significance and engineering technical value. The dynamic model and decision-supporting system on cascade-reservoirs lately developed involves more than 50 large-scale reservoirs and controls catchments of area over one million square kilometers in upper Yangtze valley. Characterized by all-round supervising the states of all reservoirs and subsequently carrying out flexible operating simulation, this system can fulfill long-term forecasting to daily stream flow in six months and the analog simulation to various operating schemes. It is regarded as the largest scale and the highest level reservoir group operating/simulation system, according to the scientific reference retrieval. The key theories and technologies in the long-term forecasting of river flow, the determinate principle forecasting confidence probability, the multi-stage limiting-water-levels on flood season based on the dynamic storage capacity, the dynamics model of flow and sediment to Three Gorges reservoir have been studied and solved, thus the results on the long-term runoff forecasting of complex reservoir group system and optimization scheduling and related technologies have been proposed. These results have been evaluated reaching the international leading level in the appraisal meeting. The system complexity and technical difficulty can be considered as a new “Three Gorges Project” in large-scale water resources controlling system.
选自：中科院国际合作局第64期简报 Geoscience CAS Newsletter NO.64 June, 2009